Tekken: Redemption (Season 3)
by MartialArtsLover
Summary: Well, here we go again. And this time, you may get to see familiar faces again, because we shall start with a tale from Paul Phoenix's life. All characters belong to Bandai Namco (Katsuhiro Harada)
1. Being Unwelcome

**Chapter 1: Being Unwelcome**

It was a somewhat chilly Sunday. We are back in Osaka, where we see our beloved vigilante, Asuka Kazama, standing in the back of Marshall Law's restaurant, enjoying a short break from her recently applied, part-time job at Law's resto. Ever since her second encounter with Jin, merely a month ago, life has gotten a lot busier for her, for some reason. But it's for the better. At least, from her perspective. Not only has she grown closer to Hwoarang, more than ever before, thanks to their team up against their arch nemesis, Feng Wei... she actually stayed true to her word and told her parents about Jin himself and how he demanded for their assistance and that he is willing to do anything, whatever pleases them, just so they don't sell him out to the police...

...Surprisingly enough, they agreed to aid him in his efforts. This is one of those times, where even Asuka is baffled at how accepting her own family is, even towards a criminal, like her long lost cousin. Of course, it also resulted in her getting slightly scolded by her own parents, as it wasn't really typical of them to welcome people into their own four walls, who are internationally regarded as threats to society. But despite all of this, family comes first and especially with a youngster, who is also a Kazama, like them. And they received even more reason to care for Jin, once Asuka told them of his bravery and how he selflessly tackled Feng, willing to avenge both her, Hwoarang, Baek and even Asuka's father. He risked his own life for their well-being. That alone, was enough for them to fully confirm, that Jin couldn't possibly be that much of a bad person, if he was willing to go this far for his own flesh and blood and his friends. She didn't tell them yet however, about the full story of how her cousin even became a sought after "warlord", from his point of view. She decided to save that up for another time, once he comes by to visit them, in person.

Still, the amount of relief on her end, could not be described in words. At first, she feared she might have gotten sold off to the local authorities, by her very own parents, just like the rest of the newly formed team, that consisted of her, Jin, Hwoarang, Xiaoyu and Panda. And it's not like she had that much confidence to begin with, since she was always seen as a problem child. She used to be a true hazzle for both the police force and her family, with how many times, she ended up in public fist fights, for the sake of bringing justice to downtown. She didn't know, if it was just obnoxious luck, or a gift sent from the higher ups... she didn't really care. But either way, she could not even begin to imagine, what would have happened, if her parents weren't that caring towards her. This only made her love them even more and she really began to appreciate, how uncommon parental support has become these days. She couldn't possibly be any more content, than she is now.

Aside from that, since Asuka was also eternally grateful of Law, for not only having taught her the basics of cooking and how to rebuild your own confidence as a person... just for the sake of thanking him, she decided to actually help him out at his own restaurant location in Osaka... and also to earn a little more cash, as a small bonus. After all, she may need that money sooner or later, once she moves to a prestige college. And as of right now, our young Kazama is at the phone, talking to Hwoarang a little, to keep him a little distracted too.

"Well, how is work for you? I bet it's quite strenuous, since it's a resto and you guys are very likely to be more busy on the weekends."

"Oh, you are not too far off base. Even though, we are not off, training in a typical, old fashioned kind of way, he still makes me break one hell of a sweat with the tasks he is handing out to me. I may end up carrying some boxes back and forth, I may help out in the kitchen, by either washing the dishes or assist the other cooks in preparing the food, I may be a temporary cashier... that kind of busy, is what we are talking about here."

"I can only take your word for that."

And the Kazama could not help, but openly speak out about her jealousy towards Hwo, since his job does not occupy him on Sundays. It made him chuckle, listening to her slightly irritated voice.

"You lucky son of a bitch. You have the day off on Sundays and here I am, serving out some good stuff from a Chinese guru, that happens to be very edible."

"Tsk, could have been worse. ...I wonder how it would have been, if you chose a red-light district as your "small job". Because, y'know... your meat baskets tell quite the tale for this idea. Hehehe."

Hearing that, made her growl in annoyance, as her right knuckle began twitching.

"Oh, shut up! I dare you, to say that to my face, when I come home. I freaking dare you!"

Hwo had to laugh even louder, as he truly enjoyed teasing his best, new friend.

"I am just kidding, c'mon. Let me have some food for thought too. You are way above the league to consider that lowly kind of job, so chill off. ...still..."

"Don't. Even. Think. About it. Delete any kinds of "weird" ideas with me from your brainstems, got it?"

"OK, OK. Cool off. ...and I also mean that literally. Hope you got a jacket with you. Heard it's going to remain this cold outside, for the rest of the day. And we wouldn't want you to catch a cold now, would we?"

"Don't you worry. I am a trained professional."

This was Asuka's chance to get back at Hwo's mischievous shots at her. So she took it upon herself to take the initiative and tell him about a secret training method of hers, that he may find interesting enough to attempt by himself. She began smiling deviously, as she wants to hear the verdict later and she just knows, that it won't be pleasant for him, since it's very likely, that he never tested it before. And knowing his competitive spirit... this was just all kinds of perfect.

"Speaking of which... believe it or not, no idea if I ever told you this before, but I actually take ice baths every now and then, just to work on my pain resistance. I swear on that. You got to try that out for yourself, if you want remain in top shape. Especially in times of winter."

Already, he felt intrigue and nodded his head, agreeing with her, as he did hear of such a method before.

"Ah, ice baths, huh? The perfect way for an athlete to increase his stamina and keep his overall temperature low, even while running hot... so I heard, at least. Fine with me, I shall consider this offer of yours. I will be getting some ice cubes and-"

"No, no, no! There is no need for that! Simply... go to that one onsen, on the other end of the town. It's this time of the autumn season again, where they are offering you ice baths in the open. It's a little pricey, but believe me: You absolutely WON'T regret it. And oh, before I forget... you'll also get to see a giant cube of ice, protruding out of the onsen. That's when you know, you reached your destination."

"Gotcha. I will be right on my way there. See ya later."

"See ya... and enjoy. Hehehehehe."

She hangs up, before laughing her butt off, as she is so prepared to hear him complaining about her having supposedly "pranked" him, because she knows, he is mostly way over his head with his own self-confidence. She could not wait for the results.

"Oh boy. He'll kill me for that, but that was so damn worth it."

Suddenly, the door opened up behind her and it was no other than Law, coming out of the backdoor, to let Asuka know: Break's over. Work is awaiting her.

LATER IN THE AFTERNOON...

The young Kazama prodigy, was finally done with the day's work and she was free to go home... however, just when she was about to pack her stuff and leave the restaurant, she actually heard Law, in his office, making a pretty loud phone call with someone. The curiosity got the best of her and she began eavesdropping, as she became worried and feared at first, someone was blackmailing her best friend, that helped her get back on her feet.

"What is going on in there? Is a mobster boss calling him, demanding for a loan, so that his property remains untouched? The Yakuza? Did he make a deal with one of them... or worse, is he threatening him with taking... the lives of his family?"

A thousand thoughts shot through her head and it could not be denied, that she was worried about him, because she could only guess, that this phone call in particular, must be pretty important to him, judging from the words that fell, like "Yes, I will", "It will be ready", "No need to worry" and the fact that, the door was shut. To us, it may not sound that serious, it could mean something else, but Asuka is not the type of person to take any chances and she wants to be of assistance, in any way she can for those she holds dear. She began slightly panicking, once she realized, the door was locked, so she comically yelled:

"It's wielded shut...! Hang on, chief! I am coming in!"

But just when she was about to let her kick land right against the door, totally out of the blue, Law undid the lock and left the room... only then to be greeted by Asuka's ankle, connecting with his holy crown jewels, causing him to drop the keys and make a face of absolute agony, squeaking in pain, with the Kazama comically realizing, she screwed up real bad. And once the martial art legend dropped on his rear, just to then cover his balls in protection, she immediately went down to press her face repeatedly against the ground, apologizing deeply for her stupidity.

"IamsorryIamsorryIamsorryIamsorryIamsorry! I'm so damn sorry, chief! I didn't mean to!"

The Jeet Kune Do master then comically jumps up, angrily scolding his own disciple.

"Hey! What in the name, of all that is holy, was that all about?! Explain yourself, right now, if you want to keep your job!"

"I am sorry! I was just passing by your office, when I heard you arguing with someone! And because it sounded to me, like someone was harassing you on the other end of the line and you locked the door closed, I was getting worried! So I wanted to get in by force, just to share my thoughts on this matter with this creep..."

The moment the fighting legend heard the word "creep", he immediately forgot to be angry and instead, became readily confused.

"Wait, "creep"? What do you mean? I... wasn't being bothered by anyone."

This perked Asuka's attention and she became both relieved, but also curious, as she wanted to know more, just for future reference, so that this misunderstanding doesn't happen again.

"You weren't? But then... who was it, that you were talking to?"

"It was my family. To be specific, my wife, Linda. She called me to let me know, that the contract with the moving company has been settled. That soon, I shall finally be reunited with her and my son, Forest. Remember him? I dropped his name, from time to time."

Now the Kazama had more reason to feel ashamed of herself. She had no idea, it was simply a family matter, that she was just about to disrupt with her brash and too judgemental demeanor.

"Oh... I suppose, I shouldn't have interrupted, huh? I genuinely cannot apologize enough for my rash decisions."

She then regained her composure and got back on the real meat of this conversation. The phone call.

"But anyways. You were saying just now, that that was your wife? Will everything be OK? Because, pardon me, but it really sounded like something concerning was going on..."

"Oh, no need to worry. Everything is in calm waters. Like I said, she only called me to let me know about the contract with the moving company. So far, everything is going according to plan. But still..."

He then began leaning against the door, folding his arms, while chuckling, as he had to think of his own son. Not only was he missing him dearly... despite the reassurance from his better half, he could not hide his concern over his own off spring. This is the beginning of a whole new life, in a different country. And he is wondering, if Forest would ever be able to adapt to Japanese society. They lived in poverty for so many years and now, things have changed drastically. Whether it was for the better, is a whole different topic in itself. The question was: Will he be able to handle it?

And this wasn't the only thing, that weighed down on his soul. As his family would get company.

"You should know, that despite these changes in my life having occurred in less than five years, I am still having a tough time, accepting it. I finally repaired my financial status, my son has finally finished his education in America and now... they are to join me here. In a totally different world, foreign to them. And it makes me somewhat weary, in regards to how my son might be able to cope with it all. People say it's easy. I say, it couldn't be any further away from the "established truth". And not only that."

His gaze then fell upon Asuka, as he had to mention it.

"They won't be alone, as my lifelong buddy, Paul, will be joining them during this trip."

Hearing the name, the Kazama innocently had to point something very specific out about that person, her new master was referring to, wanting to satisfy her hunch.

"Paul... you mean, THAT one? That Blondie with the hair, that looks like he glued a good dozen of french fries to his skull?"

Law nodded and laughed at the same time. There was no other, with that significant detail of his.

"Yup. Paul Phoenix. You need to realize, that my family weren't the only people, that I had to financially support. Since Paul simply lacked a financial backbone, I had to help him out, just as well. It's also a way of paying the debt, that he demanded from me, back then, when my son accidently wrecked his motorcycle. And since he had nothing better to do, as an addition, he has decided to guard my family along their way to Japan... and maybe even find his greatest fortune here."

"I see."

But being a little more perceptive than most people, Asuka was able to tell, that Law did not really say the word "friend" in regards to Paul, with absolute confidence and pride. It sounded more like, their "friendship" is more like an obligation, rather than a genuine bond. So to test the waters, she decided to bear in a little deeper.

"And excuse my question, but... you say, he is your "lifelong, best friend"? Heh, to me, it didn't sound like, you enjoyed saying that. And before you say anything... just for your information, I am not stupid. I can easily tell, when someone is not being sincere with me. But because you are far from a bad person, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. So, what is it?"

The martial arts master had to chuckle, as he should have guessed, that she would have further barged into his business, like she did with most people, she met in her life. But out of respect for her and because Asuka puts a lot of faith in him, he decided to spill the beans, at last.

"You're indeed smarter than you look, you know that? But as a matter of fact, yes. You are right. This bond between me and Paul is definitely not, what it used to be. Way back when, we'd fight and fall together. Whatever the weather. We were like brothers of two different moms. But sadly, once I got married and even brought Forest into this world... it grinded to a halt. There was no passion anymore, as my son was mostly the center of attention and less about what we suffered through together to get this far. Sure, we'd spar from time to time, but because of Paul's descent into bankruptcy, and even with me ending up penniless, due to my failing restaurant at the time... it only served to make us more " business partners" and less "friends"."

He then had to let out a major sigh of melancholy, having a hard time processing it, knowing the good times were long gone.

"And by the 5th tournament, it really got out of hand. I had no idea how to react to it, or if I had to call up a doctor, but all of a sudden... Paul would just start blabbering about "becoming the toughest in the universe" and that this was all, that was on his mind. Nothing else. I deemed him to have totally lost it now, but he didn't care. He only wanted to beat everyone and be the best there is. He even prepared signs for freaking aliens to spot... Aliens! But you know something? By itself, the goal of being the strongest known to man, isn't what I had a problem with. The fact, that he was reaching this far into the stars... literally, mind you... I- I believed him to be freshly prepared for the mental asylum."

Deep down, Asuka had to laugh at the irony of his situation. It reminded her way too much of herself and her beef with a certain Blonde from Monaco, that drove her nearly into insanity just as well... with how she failed to understand the meaning of the word "No".

"Sounds like he really began grinding your gears to dust. Heh, feels familiar."

"And you think that's it? Well, I had problems of my own. Because, like I said, back then, Forest wrecked Paul's bike by accident, but his own health also took a major hit in the gut. It left me with no choice. I had to join the 5th tournament, praying to god, that I will make it to the final rounds and win the prize money necessary, to patch my life up and even save my son... well, didn't work out. Didn't even make it to the top 3 and ended up leaving the place, with empty hands, yet again."

The young Kazama felt horrified to hear this, as she immediately wanted to:

"That's horrible... your son..."

"Yeah, I was just as petrified as you, right now. But do not worry, he still made it through. Luckily, I found out later, that Paul actually managed to make it pretty far in the 5th tournament. And for his efforts, he received the compensation prize, which he actually handed out to me, so that I can return home and even pay the medical bills for my son. However, he was left penniless again... and still, he did not stop pursuing his dream of becoming "the toughest in the universe"."

"Phew, I'm glad. You nearly gave me a heart attack, geez. I would have seriously hated to be in your shoes, being burdened with the fate of your family like this, while being stuck in a place, far away from home. That is quite a horrifying image to wrap your mind around."

"Indeed. You seriously wouldn't wish this upon anyone else, not even your worst enemies. And when the 6th tournament came around, I felt like it was time to repay Paul for having helped me, getting the money for the hospital bill. The reason, why he didn't make it further, was because of him having been too exhausted to continue, since he was all on his own and being a one-man-show in a tournament... bad idea. Some backup is always nice. So this time, despite my concerns for his mental health, I decided to shove it aside, because we both were in need of money again, so we came to following conclusion: Fighting together, while also searching for a 3rd partner in our arsenal... which turned out to be the Brit, Steve Fox."

"Right... that is actually pretty thoughtful of you... I mean, sure, Paul seems to suffer some kind of midlife crisis, but you still remained by his side, watching over him and showing the best you got, to let him know, he is not alone in this. That is what I call, true dedication."

However, this is where Law had to draw the line, as his look darkened and he had to get real with her, not being able to hide his disdain any longer.

"Too bad though... because, by the 7th tournament, I just couldn't stand it anymore. I was getting truly fed up with his antics, as it was by then, when I realized, all we did, was just making us seem like complete, money-grubbing asses. When really, we were just two guys, wanting to earn some cash, just to fix the quality of our lives... but no, it just kept getting worse. After the 6th tournament, I decided to try myself again, in the arts of running a dojo, teaching my own fighting style to the younger generation... but once again, my debts were still weighing down on me, with the dojo not even being nearly enough to pay all of it. Once the 7th tournament got announced, in hindsight, I should have been smarter and simply stay out of it, as it meant resorting back to the old tricks again, with Paul messing it all up, with his idiotic plans."

He sighed, as he facepalmed.

"But no... as naive as I was, I fell for it and listened to another one of this ridiculous plans. And it was to fight as a team again, while also searching for a secondary master, that shall watch over my dojo, since he already must have realized: He simply isn't the ideal choice for this type of task. And well... you won't believe this, but we actually fought this Chinese Kenpo master."

The very moment, that reached Asuka's eardrums, she instantly became pissed, but at the same time, worried for her new master.

"You don't happen to mean Feng Wei, right? You actually fought him?"

"Indeed, I did... and like the good old saying goes: It's never wise to fight a battle, that you know, you can't win. This is exactly what happened here. I am not someone to be easily intimidated by the reputation of my opponent, I just go with the flow. But this guy... Feng was just on a completely different level of skill and overall strength. It was like fighting a wall. I wasn't prepared in the least for him and it only resulted in me, losing... but then Paul showed up and saved my bacon, at the last second."

FLASHBACK

We see a small flashback of Law and Paul bombarding Feng with the best they got and despite having taken him by surprise, making the impression, as if they had won together, it turned out to be false, as Feng stood back up again and glares at the duo with animalistic intent, with an ominous purple and yellow light surrounding him. Both went at it again, but this time, none of the two had a chance, not even with combined forces.

Law: "At first, it went pretty well for us... until he started using some kind of out-of-this-world technique, which quickly tired us out, resulting in our inevitable defeat. And before any of us was to end in a graveyard, we decided to call it quits and take a hike, just before things get worse."

Afterwards, we see Law and Paul, back at the hotel, with the nurses taking care of their wounds... but unlike many times, this one time, there is actual tension between the two friends, as if groundbreaking changes are to come. And indeed were they right about it, as we see the two arguing, very angrily, without any jokes dropped or anything to lighten it all up, like usual. It was this one moment, where the both knew: It's over. This team is no longer compatible.

Law: "Of course, Paul tried to remain positive and I took major offence to it, since his stupid plan, almost got us both killed. And I was not able to grasp, why he still acts as if everything's alright, when it's clearly NOT. And at that point, I had to make it clear, that I am no longer in on his bullcrap. All of these quick money schemes and everything, it just made everything worse for us and my family. He never learned his lesson. And this BS about becoming "the toughest in universe"... I simply could not bear to hear it any longer. I am tired of it. I am tired of him. I am tired of his ideas. I am tired of everything involving money problems. Just... everything. And it got so bad..."

As a topping on the cake, we then see Law, mercilessly punching Paul, real hard in the face, which sends him flying across the room, crashing straight into the closet, with the wood just shattering under his weight and the impact...

Law: "...in desperation, I just punched his skull, real hard, as I was not able to cope anymore with his moronic demeanor. I then yelled at him, saying, that I want him to leave me alone... that he should go look for someone else to bother with his shenanigans..."

FLASHBACK ENDS

"I'll never forget, for how hard he slammed the door shut, right after he left the room... and I haven't seen him since. He may be helping me again, but quite honestly... at this point, I couldn't care less about him, if I was to be frank with you. Ever since the 4th tournament, I just knew, that Paul wasn't the same anymore, that something must have cracked within him, that caused him to have devolved into this man of fantasies and insanity..."

The young Kazama was genuinely touched by this backstory. And she knew deep down, despite his harsh words, he may actually still consider Paul a friend, despite the difficulties.

"That's why, you weren't really paying too much attention recently... it's all because of him and the argument. Are you sure, you will be fine?"

He shrugged, not knowing how to feel about any of this.

"I am not sure... however, I do have to mention, despite everything... he was always there for me, in the worst moments imaginable. Still... ugh, I just... some sick part me still wishes the best of luck for him... and at the same time, not. At the very least, some good news, for a change. At the end of the 7th tournament, we finally received some good fortune, as someone was kind enough to leave behind a clean amount of cash for both me and Paul. All so that he can go back to America and I can start anew here in Japan, with a brand new restaurant brand."

His thoughts then drift off into the distance, wondering what Paul might be up to...

"I really wonder, how he is doing, though... will my son be OK too?"

MEANWHILE, OVERSEAS IN AMERICA...

We are in the middle of a desert, close to the border to New Mexico, with loud motorcycle noises filling the otherwise, brewing hot air. And we then get to see, from where the noise comes from and we get a close up of a motorcycle, with a flaming symbol on its sides, with silver shining grips, and pitch black paint. One strong leg is putting the pedal to the metal and we then go up, as we finally get to see, the man himself, Paul Phoenix, taking a ride through the really dry wasteland.

Seated right behind him, was Marshall Law's son, Forest Law, who was holding on tight to Paul, as the two went straight for the horizon, in the middle of the day. Before they were to head to Japan, just to kill some time, they'd go for a daring ride, right through the deep southern part of the US. But the real reason was to test out Paul's newly fixed motorcycle, on which he had spent quite a few bucks on, just to get it to run again and even tune it to the best state he can afford. He also extended the size, so that it was large enough for two people to sit on, hence Forest's ability to sit on the same seat like Paul's.

Among the two, Paul enjoyed this ride the best, as he felt most at home, when he gets ride his motorcycle, living the free life, that he always desired.

"Oh yeah... there is nothing better, than to basically just glide straight to the horizon, letting the wind kiss my face. Nothing compares. Absolutely. Freaking. Nothing."

He then sniffs the air a little, being very fond of this strong smell, that is like the "blood" of a machine.

"And gasoline, baby... smells just like home. Back at my garage."

Forest, however, was comically silent and awfully clingy to his 2nd father figure, this whole time. And Paul already had a hunch why: Bad experience. Since he already drove his motorcycle to scrap metal before and it got himself pretty close to heaven's doorstep, he decided to be extra careful this time. But just to lighten up the mood, Paul started laughing, as he began caressing his metallic beauty from the side.

"Is something the matter, Forest? Don't worry. There won't be another crash. What you suffered through was only a mere accident. And besides, my metallic baby here is back in good shape. And when I am putting the pedal to the metal, what can possibly go wrong?"

Suddenly, he froze up, as the two heard a loud, alarming beeping and Forest had to make the call, as he comically frantically pointed on what exactly was making that noise.

"Well, a number of things! With one of them being us nearly out of fuel!"

"What in the- oh no! We forgot to fill the tank! Uh oh..."

And in just mere minutes, Paul's bike increasingly lost momentum, and soon grinded down to an absolute halt, right in the middle of nowhere. Both stayed silent, until Paul facepalms and growls.

"Darn it all! Now, of all times?! You can't be serious...!"

And in this brewing heat, this was no time to be joking around. Both immediately saw the urgency of their situation. So they jumped off of the bike and made up a plan together.

"And what are we going to do now? Without fuel, we won't be getting any further. And might I add, that our rations are almost all used up? We need to find a nearby gas station, and fast."

"My thoughts exactly. No time to waste, let's get on it and push!"

And there they went, pushing their vehicle through the desert landscape, hoping they'd eventually find a place to cool down in and refill the tank of Paul's "horse".

2 HOURS LATER...

Even after 2 hours of walking and pushing, the two had to take a break and wipe the sweat from their foreheads, feeling no more strength to continue in this suppressing heat. They collapsed right next to each other, leaning against the bike, totally out of breath.

"Paul... I need a break... I seriously can't go on anymore..."

"Me neither... just for a moment... let us catch our breath... but no falling asleep, you hear me...? This is the same as signing your death warrant..."

"No shit, Sherlock... oh lord, it's so hot, I might want to stomp on something..."

It was no secret anymore, that the two partners were feeling quite irritated. Once again, bad luck was following them, always on their tracks. And it hasn't become any better. But now, they start believing, that the bad luck, that was haunting them, was Death itself, disguised as their own "coincidental misfortune", because as it stands now, it looks real bad for them. With no more rations at their disposal, they might dehydrate here.

And once again, Paul is the only one, to remain optimistic. And it never ceased to baffle Forest, seeing as how he never was the smartest and he mostly managed to defy the odds. Like, how he actually managed to win over a certain creature from an Aztec temple. And whenever he had one of his moments, something was telling him, he should be listening to the call, since Paul might be his lucky charm, yet again.

"Don't you fear, Forest. We will make it out of her for sure... my IQ may be far from high, but at the very least, my own luck has never let me down. My instincts will lead us to somewhere protecting..."

Suddenly, they heard loud honking and they had to quickly dodge with the bike in their grip... and when they looked up, they realized: They actually made it to a small suburb town, close to the border of New Mexico. Now had Paul more reason to feel confident, as he patted Forest's head with a wide toothy grin.

"See? Told you so."

Forest's jaw dropped, before sighing in relief.

"You know something? You may need to tell me, how you pull this off, because I want to get in on some of that obnoxious luck of yours."

"Nuh-uh, it's only reserved for me. You need to work on your own sense for fortune. And part of it includes you starting to believe in yourself. Without it, it may never improve. Just thought, it needed a mention here."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever... let's just go. Where there is a suburb, there must also be a gas station."

And with that, both continued pushing onward, but it wasn't for long, until... completely out of nowhere, Forest began breathing heavily...

"Hey... Paul, I... I may need some-"

"Forest?"

...before collapsing down to the ground, losing his consciousness. Paul's heart stopped beating for a few seconds, before blasting forward, kneeling down to try his best and revive the now lifeless Forest, doing basic revival techniques, pumping against his heart with both hands.

"Forest...! Forest! Wake up, wake up! Wake up, kiddo! Don't leave me hangin' here, come on!"

Forest may be still alive, as his chest was still rising repeatedly, but it was very faint and his pulse was dangerously fast. His skin was burning hot, too.

"Forest?!"

"Paul, I- I am sorry... for being such an unnecessary burden to you... I-"

"Say no more, we have to fix up!"

Then, to their fortune, someone came rushing in, assisting in Forest's temporary recovery, by actually taking out an ice cold bottle and pressing it against the youngster's forehead, trying to cool him off. The person, to Paul's genuine astonishment, was the one and only, Michelle Chang, who has recently, freshly returned from her small hiatus.

"That should keep him cold for a bit, but not for long! This poor guy is having a heatstroke. We have to take him to the orphanage and fast!"

Not being able to hide his surprise, Paul could only gawk in surprise.

"Wait, hold on for a sec... do I know you?"

"This isn't important right now! Go and help me carry him!"

"And what about the motorcycle?"

"Wait, I got an idea! Grab him by the shoulder!"

"Alright!"

She and Paul grasped the halfway conscious Forest by the shoulders, before gently putting him on the seat of the former KOIF-champion's bike and then towing the vehicle along, with the youngster's head leaned against the handles.

"No time to waste, it's time for a major cool off."

Now that Paul had time to actually reorganize his thoughts... he got back to his senses and realized with a smile, who actually just saved their lives.

"...Michelle. It's good to see you again..."

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. The Retired Legend

**Chapter 2: The Retired Legend**

After having received some medical attention from both Michelle Chang and an assistant tribe doctor, Forest was told to stay in bed for a day or three, just to allow the heatstroke to finally relinquish. And as of now, the young Jeet Kune Do disciple was laying in the small cabin, with an ice cold towel, folded up and pressed against his forehead. The heatstroke was still fresh, so of course, he felt quite the fatigue on his own body. At least, he can rest now in peace, with the in-built cooling system keeping him all… cool.

Still, he was quite relieved, that he and Paul still made it through the desert, completely unharmed… more or less. For once, his „lucky charm", actually saved their lives. And the young prodigy couldn't be happier.

„Paul, you… I really need your secret for your „lucky charm". Someone like me may have good uses for it. Getting rid of this accursed heatstroke, being one of many."

He sighed, as he starts resting his skull under his both arms.

„But it's also thanks to… to… what was her name again? Michelle? Judging from Paul's reaction though, I am just going to assume, that he is familiar with her. Eh, whatevs. At least, she was gracious enough to let us rest here. Normally, we'd be given the cold shoulder, but not this time. So already, she is on my list of people I'd like to encounter, every so often."

MEANWHILE, DOWNSTAIRS…

While all the kids were out and about, playing with Xavier, who is also watching over them, Paul was downstairs, seated in the kitchen, with Michelle arriving, with two huge cups of iced coffee in her grip, ready to get down on it with her old friend. This brought a wide grin to the Phoenix' face, as he and the female Indian took a sip from their ice cold, caffeine-filled beverage. The coldness of the drink only served to make the fry-haired American lay back a little in his seat, sighing happily.

„The simplest things in life, are only the best."

Michelle cutely nodded, leaning back in her seat in agreement.

„Oh, how I must agree with you. Nothing beats some ice cold coffee, during the lunchtime heat…"

Paul then could not resist talking about this very lucky coincidence of Michelle, of all people, having rushed for his and Forest's assistance.

„And umm, by the way, since I didn't quite get the chance to say it… thanks. You really saved our thick-cut bacon out there. Hehehe."

And what came next, he did not see that coming. A pout and a motherly scold, fresh out of Michelle's mouth, landed right on him.

„No need for that. What exactly were you two doing this whole time? That boy, who was with you, was very close in giving in to the heat! So tell me, right now: What have you done to end up like this?"

He had to laugh nervously, since he caused quite the deal of trouble for himself and Forest and seeing as how she was genuinely worried about them, he had to spill it all out.

„Long story short: We ran out of fuel. So we had no other way, other than to go on and push my motorcycle, to the next best gas station. But since we ran out of gas, right in the middle of nowhere, it went on for two, whole hours… I think? I totally lost track of time in that moment. But I can say, we have been out for quite some time."

This made the vice leader of her own tribe stomp her foot on the ground, before comically increasing the size of her head to yell at Paul with the angriest of a glare, that she can muster up to do, even if it ends up coming off as comedic.

„SAY WHAT?! You mean to tell, that you have been hanging around in this ungodly heat for 2 hours straight?! Are you kidding me? You could have died, in the worst case scenario! Be thankful, that I was right there to help! Otherwise, you might have both turned into human BBQ! Don't you ever dare doing this again, you hear me?! I don't want to catch you both repeating this! Seriously…"

The Blonde American chuckled, as he scratched the back of his head, respecting her concern, quite a lot.

"Yeah, it's my fault, really. I should have taken a spare canister with me. But as always, when it comes to the important things, I tend to forget them more often than truly desired…"

This was more than enough for Michelle to immediately calm down and fold her arms, while continuing onwards with her pouting, being yet still disappointed in him.

"I very well damn hope so, that you turn on your brain next time! That may actually help you for once, instead of using your "Deathfist" to solve your problems. Hmph. At least, you realize, you made a mistake."

"Pretty much. And hey, don't you start disrespecting MY strength."

"Paul."

"OK, OK, sorry… "indian princess"."

To his fortune, he muttered those last words, since he didn't feel like playing with the fire again, so he kept quiet about it.

But what he could not stay quiet about, was the way Michelle looked. It was a total departure from when he last saw her, decades ago. Mildly put, she isn't the same anymore.

"But speaking of disrespecting… I don't mean to disrespect you, but… what happened to you?"

"Hm?"

"I seriously don't mean offence, but looking at you, it really gives me the impression, that you may have let yourself go… a LITTLE bit too much. Not that I have problem with it, it's only strange to see you morph from a lively, young woman, to a… miserable sight as this."

Michelle may appreciate Paul's concern for her. But at the same time, she didn't feel like going over this topic, one more time. King has already caused her a good deal of trouble about it, but she wasn't really in on it anyhow and now what? Falling into a sulking mood again? No can do, is Michelle thinking to herself. So she decides to dodge his words and try coming up with a different topic, hoping to god, he'd not ask too many questions.

"…isn't it time to be checking up upon your friend? He may need some fresher towels. I'll be right back."

"Oh, right! Umm, go and do that."

After she was out of sight, this made the former competitor fold his arms in thought, as he was wondering, what could have possibly caused his old friend to let herself go like that. This wasn't like her. She was known to be mostly active and remain in primo shape. And she was a fiery spirit just as well, who doesn't back out without a fight. He reminisced back to the good ol' days, when he was at his best and he very nearly lost to her, which marked the very first time, a female martial artist, forced him beyond his limits. Remembering it all, made him all fired up again.

"Not many girls were daring enough to challenge me in my glory days. But Michelle… oh boy, she was on fire that day, when we made the bet over our entrance emblems."

FLASHBACK

Paul and Michelle clash together, with her elbow connecting his jaw, before getting struck in the solar plexus, by Paul's knee strike. We then see Michelle performing a German Suplex on the American dreamer, but Paul soon retaliated, by tackling her to the ground, starting to punch her, three times in the gut, before going below her to choke her with his trademark submission move. This duel was indeed that of what you'd normally see in a colosseum from Roman times. It was barbaric, bloody and without mercy. But that was the type of challenge that Paul truly enjoys. Something, that forces him to go above and beyond his physical limitations.

Paul: "I could not believe, what I was seeing. For the very first time, I had absolutely nothing to add. This girl, was a class in her own right. I thought, my first confrontation with Kazuya was a grueling marathon of brutality, leading up to an agonizing loss on my behalf… but nope, Michelle has proven to be almost, if not, as much of a challenge as the Mishima kingpin underdog himself."

As if it wasn't bad enough, now we see Paul, performing his infamous move, the Deathfist, on the Native American girl, making his burning knuckle connect with her gut, almost as if he was impaling her with a spear.

She gets sent flying, before crashing through two thick tree trunks. It looked like the winner has already been decided, as very few ever managed to get back up from such a destructive blow…

Paul: "And even with my best move coming in contact with her…"

…until Michelle came forward, out of the dusty cloud, with shivering knees and with blood coming out of her mouth from both ends. And the comeback came with these words from her: Is that it? Boring…!

Paul: "…few seconds later, she'd stand right in front of my crusty eyes, almost as if my punch doesn't even really make her itch. So we continued onward with our match. And that would go on and on, for a pretty long time. She simply refused to stay down."

However, after he hit her a 2nd time with his Deathfist, the results were the same. Michelle would simply not catch a break and just continue fighting, as if it was nothing. Despite her injuries clearly telling the opposite of things. However, Michelle would then do something not really expected on Paul's side. She'd actually start weeping and grit her teeth, saying, that she is not doing this for fame or for money, like him. She only joined to save her mother from Kazuya, who, from her perspective, kidnapped her mother and thus, that is what drives her keep on going. These words stuck with him, to this day.

Paul: "Eventually, she'd spill out her own reasons for having joined the fray. It was all for her mother's safety, as she feared, good ol' Kazuya, may have done something to her… and the only way to free her from his grip, was to win the tournament. The thought of finally returning home with her mom, safe and sound, is what is keeping her standing upright. That is true dedication right there."

And like before, the fight would continue, but this time, the outcome was different, as Michelle, would again, take the Deathfist to the stomach, however… this time, she didn't get catapulted away from the Blonde star, as she previously stomped the floor with both feet, just to get somewhat of a solid footing for herself, just so she doesn't get sent to the moon.

Paul: "And she was one hell of an injury sponge. I hit her the 3rd time with my Deathfist and still… she simply refused to accept defeat. I was starting to feel seriously like shit, as she looked damn awful. She was bleeding from her nose, from her mouth, from one ear too, like what in the world was wrong with her? She is, without a doubt, the second person to be not too fazed by my signature move, next to Kazuya. And here is the catch: She isn't even a Mishima. Well, you know what they say… love can make people become the craziest of nutjobs."

But like everything else, it had to come to an end soon and since Paul was clearly, the least injured in this match, at last, Michelle gave in to her injuries and exhaustion… and collapses straight into Paul's arms, who quickly caught her, feeling pretty bad about himself. This is one victory, that he couldn't accept with absolute pride. Knowing that she may never have the chance to save her mom, that all her hope has gotten crushed, because of him… it weighed down heavily on his conscience.

Paul: "I can even recall myself, not having been able to retain a tear or two for her. Her one and only chance of saving her family, has been shot. And it struck nothing. Normally, I'd start boasting about my achievements, but not this one. Sure, she may still have had a few Mishima emblems left, as both of our emblem counters were still below 5, meaning, there still was a chance for her to make an epic comeback. Since either of us would have given over only one emblem, should either one of us lose. But the problem is, she'd have ended up grinding herself to death for them again, just to get back on track. And knowing the condition I left her in… she needed more than ONE miracle. Because the tournament rules state, that: If you don't make it out of the hospital, before your next match begins, it will be counted as forfeit."

FLASHBACK ENDS

"Later, me and her close friend, whose name I forgot, actually brought her to the hospital and once they attached her to the machine, I left her room, feeling genuinely ashamed of myself. And this is something I never ever felt like before, being totally overpowered by guilt like that. Now you might think, It's a tournament, of course, someone has to be on the losing side. I'll just have to deal with it and let go. And yet... I had a tough time accepting it. Maybe, because, I had mad respect for her deep-rooted love to her family… something I never had."

He sighed, as this was actually, the very last time, he ever saw Michelle. And he hasn't heard from her since then.

"Maybe it was for the better, that I didn't get to meet her face to face, again. She might have put the blame all on me, since I made her ruin her own process in the tournament. Or at least, that's what I thought, she was gonna do."

Then, a small grin formed on his lips, as he remembered how his good friend, Lee Chaolan, who actually worked at the Mishima Zaibatsu, actually brought him the good news about Michelle's mother having gotten saved, in the end, through the phone.

"But Lee, as always, you are a life savior. Just when I thought, I messed up big time, he gave me this one call, that confirmed to me, that Michelle's mom, is out and about, fully healthy, without any scratches on her. Guess it has its benefits to have friends, with certain connections."

But then, he became kind of infuriated, as he still remembered how frustrated he was, when he learned from Lee, that Kazuya has been killed by their father, Heihachi. Which meant, that he won't ever get his chance to demand for a rematch with the Mishima.

"But of course, the good news, usually come with an abundance of bad ones, just as well. Because this stupid ass geezer, had to ruin my chances of ever facing his sonny boy in a rematch. I mean, he was a first class a-hole, but he at least was a really worthy opponent. And when he and I first fought, outside of the 1st Mishima hosted tournament, he didn't appear to me to be that bad of a dude from the get-go. Why did this have to happen…? And when he made it back in the 4th tournament, he simply wasn't the same anymore. I could feel it, from far away even. That this man isn't the same guy, that I fought almost 20 years ago."

He had to slam his knuckle on the wooden table in anger, not being able to accept any of it and that he was still holding out for a rematch with Kazuya. At this rate, he didn't care, if he changed. If he ever got the opportunity to fight him, one more time, he'd be satisfied. And even if he lost, that would be one loss, that he can accept in good grace, without any hard feelings involved.

"I swear, may the ones above be good to me, one more time. Grant me a wish. Make me face this spiky haired dude, one last time. It's all I truly ask for. Wherever he is. Heh, but it's not like he is going to care anyhow. He may have even forgotten my name."

However, his thoughts were then interrupted by the current Michelle, who has mischievously stood, right next to him, having a cute grin on her lips, shocking the hell out Paul, with her giggling out loud, before going over to return to her seat.

"I caught you off guard, didn't I?"

"Hahaha, yeah, you did. I didn't hear your footsteps, did you sneak up on me or something?"

"I guess, you could say that… silent as a snake, but snappy as a tiger. Roar~."

"Of course."

However, then he had an idea. Since he was actually missing a good fight, he felt like going for a kind of "rematch" with Michelle, while Forest is busy recovering from the heatstroke. There was no better way to pass the time for him. So he asked her, with a confident smug on his face.

"Hey, if you already are that good at almost giving me heart attacks, why not try this out on me, during a match? Just you and I?"

"Oh sure, that'd be—"

Her voice then stopped dead in its tracks, as she was quick to realize, what he was actually getting at, before comically starting to sweat, with an awkward grin forming on her lips, as she also began stuttering in embarrassment.

"Wait, what…?! A-A match? Right here, uh, right now?! In front of the doorstep?"

"Yeah, why not? I mean, you actually managed to withstand my Deathfist a good number of times. So I figured, why not try this again, just to see, if you are still in good shape."

"Oh, umm…! Well… hehehe, this is really unexpected. Like, I never thought, I'd be challenged to a duel like this…!"

Then, Paul had doubts about this idea, seeing how Michelle was not really happy with this idea of his.

"What's the matter? I mean, sure, you don't look as fit as you used to, but why not try it out? What do you have to lose? It's only a friendly sparring session. It's not about gaining an advantage over the other to fight over emblems, to gain access to the next rounds. This is just between you and me."

The Native American sighed deeply, still maintaining that awkward grin, afterwards, making it clear, that she is not prepared in the slightest for this.

"You sure about this? I mean, as of over 20 years ago, I officially retired from competing in any fighting matches or tournaments. And as you can tell, I am really in no condition to be fighting anyone. The curse of being a parent, I say. You'd have an unfair advantage indeed."

But then, this gave Paul an idea. Since he could not bear this pathetic sight of hers, he made the decision to stay and also focus on training

"Says the woman, who was still able to stand after about 3 Deathfists of mine. C'mon, it'd be a good exercise for you. Aren't you missing the challenge?"

"I do, but—"

He then cheerfully tugged at her wrist to pull her outside, with her comically starting to sweat again, as she is being dragged along.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Wait, wait, wait! I never—"

Both then find themselves outside, facing one and the other with intensity in their eyes… well, except for Michelle, who looks not so pleased about this. She retired and yet this blonde donkey is still insisting on her competing.

"Why the hell am I still here…?"

"Michelle, come on! Like I said, it's only a sparring match. I don't demand some high class entertainment or anything, just go straight at me. With the best that you got in you. If you want, I can even hold back, just for you to keep up with me."

In the end, since there seems to be no way out of it and she hates being underestimated like this… at last, she then mentally decided, "nah, screw it, might as well", before warming herself up a little, by doing some leg stretching, signalizing to him with her slightly irritated response, that she is more than ready.

"Fine, you stubborn ass! You want it, you got it. I cannot run from this anyhow, so what the hell? But who do you think I am, an amateur? Giving me simpler conditions to win… I ain't that easy, for god's sake."

This actually made Paul laugh, as he realized: Riling her up with taunts, is the best possible way to get her to function again.

"So that is all what you needed to get all hyped up? Fine with me. Now… here I come."

"Michelle Chang is back... more or less."

Paul charged straight into her, punching her in the face, but she was quick enough to sway back, making the punch barely miss her, before doing a significantly sluggish backflip kick, which knocks him right in the chin and forced him a few steps away from her.

"Not bad!"

Michelle might have fallen flat on her back after that backflip, but she quickly stood back up again, panting a little, already showing signs, that she is no longer fresh. But still, her fighting spirit was still present, if not a little faint.

"You haven't seen the best yet. Don't get too excited."

It was her turn then, as she sped forward, elbowing the American straight in the stomach, which he managed to foretell and duck-block, before swaying back to do a sweeping kick, that knocks Michelle flat down on her backside. However, she recovered as quickly as her old body would allow and managed, just in time, to do a backflip, before kicking the Blonde rider below the chin again, in the process of her backflipping away from him. Once she got back on her feet, she does a Kung Fu stance, signalizing she was ready for more.

"I am not too sloppy yet. You might as well come closer and try me."

"Why the hell not?"

Paul then charged straight into Michelle again, before backswaying, just in time, before her low sweeping kick could connect with his ankles. He forgot though, that she can follow this up with a jumping arrow kick, straight in his face. And that was one thing, he forgot to block in time, resulting in him falling flat on his back, covering his nose afterwards, as he was not prepared for that one.

"There is more where that came from!"

The martial artist laughed, before jumping back up, beginning to make his knuckles crack to warm up himself.

"Good, good, we are getting back in the game, aren't we? Then we may as well stop the warm up."

However, Michelle had to think to herself, as sweat began to roll down from her forehead.

"Uh oh… here he comes…!"

And Paul was not joking, as he busts loose and attempts to completely catch Michelle off guard, by first swaying back, as she was attempting to launch him upwards with an uppercut of hers, before then doing a fully charged hammer like punch on her, which she couldn't block properly, as it broke her guard. That resulted in her getting launched instead of him and Paul followed it all up, by first kneeing her in mid air, then punch her, before swaying back again to roundhouse kick her, which sends her into a tailspin. As if this wasn't painful enough, he sped forward to end up right below her, as she was still suspended in mid-air, ending the painful combo with his Demolition Man move, which consisted of him first doing a simple sweeping kick, then a back punch, before sending her flying quite a few meters away with his both spread out hands producing a shockwave, that catapults the Native American away from himself.

Michelle just rolled across the sand, before using her nails to dig them into the sand to cradle herself back up onto her feet, with her wiping away the sweat from her forehead, as she slowly starts to pant. Her body felt heavy and really worn out, but her burning will, kept her afloat.

"No, not yet…! Come on, you crooked body, don't leave me hanging here…!"

She was seriously forcing herself to continue, even though her health was a big handicap as of now, but she didn't care. She was no wuss. If she starts something, it gets done with.

"Nice job, but this old hag still has some trickeries up her sleeve!"

"Alright then! Show me!"

She lets out a battlecry, before heading straight for Paul, stopping abruptly, right in front of him, before punching him real hard in the solar plexus. But this was one hit, that only gets followed by another and that one really catches the American off guard, as he found himself getting launched in the air by his old friend, who jumps forward to nail him in mid-air with a forward punch. What came next, was her elbowing him once, before hitting him with a low punch, followed by her doing a backspin, which gets followed by a string of one kick, then a punch and then a second kick, which sends Paul flying into a tailspin, which gives the middle aged vice tribe leader to speed right into him, grabbing him mid-flight, before slamming him down to the dusty ground by his sides with both hands.

To avoid any unpleasant surprises, Julia's mother quickly spins backwards, just to not give Paul any opportunities. The latter, was indeed attempting another surprise attack, by jumping up and then doing a long-ranged sweeping punch, that was supposed to knock her down in a spinning motion. But since she backspinned in time, it didn't connect, so Paul was at a disadvantage, as Michelle then knees him in the face, before knocking him clean back, with her entire bodyweight, through a shoulder bash.

The struggle continued, as Michelle would then clash punches with the Blonde rider, ending in the two, landing punch after punch, that would only get countered by the next. Paul had to pay his sincerest respects to her, that despite the fight obviously being handicapped against her, she'd still break in, with no doubts in her mind. Just like in old times.

"You really are on fire! Gimme some more!"

"You should better watch, what you wish for… you dork!"

Then, the struggle stopped, with the last two hits clashing together, causing the two to fly away from one another, creating a remarkable distance.

However… after that, just when Paul was ready to go for some more, he stopped in his tracks, as he realized, Michelle was not moving. He already began questioning, whether he went too far, but then, to his shock, she returned back up on her walkers, throwing a smug at him.

"That was nothing…! I can still—"

But then, she comically began to feel dizzy, before slowly collapsing to the dusty ground, with her eyes rolling, as she had to pant like crazy from exhaustion, as she laid on the ground, not feeling well anymore.

"Oh, you know what…? I take it all back… maybe a nap would do the trick…"

This made the Blonde American comically look annoyed, feeling a little cheated here.

"So much for, "Michelle is back", huh? Gosh, darn it."

He then rushed over to her, deciding to help her up, carrying her, bridal style, back to the house, allowing her to rest in his arms, on the way back inside.

"There is still so much to do with you, I don't even know, where to begin. But before you end up overstraining yourself, we may need to take it slow. REAL slow, mind you."

Michelle was no longer listening, however. She was already, fast asleep. Her overall sporting condition seems to be worse off than he initially feared. And he could not bear to see her like that, so, the training routine it is.

But along the way, he saw a girl from the distance approaching him and Michelle. From the comically terrified stare on her face, he could already kind of guess, who she really is. And guilt came over him in full force.

"Mom! Oh my god, are you alright?!"

There it was. His hunch turned out to be true. This short, pig-tailed haired chick, must be Michelle's daughter, that she previously mentioned. But that didn't stop Paul's stomach from slightly churning, as he was awaiting a severe scolding from her, since it was obviously him, who did this to her mother. If she was already witnessing this match, even if it was not much, then he had every reason to be concerned. The least he could do, was reassure her, that everything was still in place. That her mother is still drawing breath and that she was literally, just taking a nap in his arms.

"Before any misunderstandings come up, don't be too alarmed. She is only sleeping. And yeah, I mean that literally."

He was already expecting a hostile response and he comically flinches, awaiting her harsh words or her fists…

"…what, she is sleeping?"

…but instead, she cutely and almost swiftly, cools down on the spot, before leaning in closer to press her face against her mother's chest. And to be sure, she even felt her pulse. It all happened real quick, almost comedy-like. Until she decided, that yes, everything is still in tact. She wiped her forehead and sighed in relief, before chuckling in an awkward manner, making it clear, that it wasn't really planned for her to act out of line like this.

"OK. My apologies for overreacting, I am just a huge bundle of explosive anxiety. My mom has become pretty sensible to almost everything, so I sometimes have to come over to check on her… just to check if she is still alive and kicking. I am sincerely sorry for having suspected you, Mr…"

"Paul Phoenix. But just call me Paul. And while we are already at it… who are you?"

"Oh! Umm, me?"

The young Native American tilted her glasses a little, before smiling cutely at the latter, obviously welcoming him, while maintaining her social awkwardness, since she isn't that used to being blatantly open with strangers, even if they don't seem like trouble.

"I… I am Julia Chang. And if it wasn't obvious by now, I… I am Michelle's daughter."

"My, how lucky she must be to have a girl as pretty as you. The resemblance is indeed noticeable between you two."

As soon as the compliment as passed by her eardrums, the nerdy girl immediately began blushing, as she had to scratch her head frantically, not being able to process it very well.

"M-M-Me? P-P-Pretty…?! Oh my—why yes, I-I mean…"

The former "strongest in the universe", couldn't help, but laughing out loud, as he found this reaction to be a solid confirmation for him: She is nothing like her mom in ONE regard. That being her apparent, social anxiety. But he is not shaming her for it. In fact, he welcomes her with open arms.

"Hahaha, no need to feel flustered. How about we continue this conversation inside?"

"Oh, right! Uh, let's go, heh. Why not?"

Paul laid Michelle down on a sofa in the living room, allowing her to rest for a little, while continuing with his conversation with Julia. For a while, they were simply having a chit-chat about the world, the news, whatever was currently interesting to know. This mostly came from Julia, as she is the type of girl to not stop talking, once she is right in the middle of it. Then it became interesting, as she comically had to go silent for a moment to take it in and realize: She almost never let him speak, or spill anything himself. And given how he is still considered a stranger here, of course she'd be curious to know the more important details.

"But enough of this… geez, when I am trying to be talkative, I speak like a waterfall. Sorry. No, but seriously, what are you doing here, anyway? It's not very often that strangers of your caliber make themselves comfortable in a place like this. What brought you here?"

"Nothing. This is just a temporary stay. The son of my good friend, who is with me here, has suffered a heatstroke, due to having been exposed to the sun for too long. All because of me having forgotten to refill the tank of my motorcycle. So we are kind of stuck here, until he has recovered. It's not like I came here by choice, it was just a fortune-filled coincidence."

"I see. And how come my mom is fast asleep? What did you do?"

"Well, let's just stick to this: We used to be rivals in the old days, so having felt nostalgic, I challenged her to a fight. Just to see if she hasn't lost her edge yet."

He looked over to the sleeping woman on the couch, awkwardly grinning to himself.

"But as it seems, she DID lose her edge. And in the end, she collapsed faster than I anticipated it. And it was going so well."

"Ugh, don't remind me. My mother is physically, just a complete train wreckage. I keep telling her to start hitting the gym every now and then, but so far, nothing changed. She'd keep falling back to square 1. No, I agree with you. She has lost her edge indeed. A stark contrast to when I was still a child. Oh man, you should have seen her. She was the type of mom, you'd definitely not want to rile up, even if she meant well."

"I can confirm that. I am a personal witness of that. If not, maybe not as bad as you described it just now."

He then had to mention something game-changing.

"But having seen your mother's lackluster performance overall and the fact, that she is in serious need of a physical overhaul… I am actually considering staying her for a bit longer, just to get your mom back to top shape."

"You want to be kind of like a "personal trainer" for her? You think you can manage that? Because I need to remind you, that she is kind of complicated."

"Nah, girl. I will be just fine. After all, you are talking to someone here, that managed to withstand both the old geezer, that was Heihachi, and his sonny boy, Kazuya. If I can handle them, then she'll be a piece of cake. Easy."

"If you say so. I'd welcome it. Because, you should know, that the reason for her looking this miserable, is because—"

But then, it was interrupted, by Xavier returning inside with all the kids following close behind. He had to command the kids a little, since they were still going a little wild, as it was too hot.

"Natasha! What did I tell you about sharing your toys with others? Kip! No biting! And you Antonio, please behave! No fists flying, while I am present! OK—"

But when he saw Julia, it immediately made him an extra kind of cheerful and to his fortune, their gazes met, before heading straight for one and the other.

"Julia!"

"Xavier!"

Both then engaged in a hug, with Julia happily introducing the young Mexican to the fry-haired American.

"In case you don't know already, this is my good friend, Xavier. He is what you'd refer to, in my regard at least, a friend, since childhood. My mom basically brought him here, not too long after having adopted me. And we are, what you'd call, the orphan pair."

"Wait, wait… you were adopted? That's strange, because you look like you are part of the family tree, by blood. So you mean to tell me, that you aren't her legit daughter, after all…?"

"…"

Xavier, not wanting this reunion to be ruined by Paul's rudeness, tried to change the subject, happily wanting to know from Julia, how she was doing. And how her studies went along. And as they were talking, Paul came by to serve the two some cool water bottles, fresh from the fridge. What the Blonde could gather from this conversation was, that Julia has been studying at a college in Washington, where she was working on a project to show the usual routine on her behalf: Reforestation, by almost wasting not too many resources. Sadly though, it wasn't going along as planned, as the laboratory, that she was given, was lacking funds, so she decided to go for a charity campaign, with a few more students to protest for the protection of the green lung. It was unfortunate, but at the very least, her mood immediately got better, once she got told of the good news from Xavier's side of things. He has been studying hard himself, just so he can apply for a college of his own. He wasn't really sure yet, what he was planning on taking as a main focus, but the entrance exams will be coming, pretty soon, and he was stoked. At last, he will be able to take responsibility of his own life.

Just watching the two, was enough to make the former Mishima destroyer feel so at home. They almost seemed like an innocent couple to him.

However, this orphanage has now peaked Paul's interest. There seems to be a kept secret to why Michelle was not willing to talk about, why she has let herself go like this. He may not be the smartest, but the reluctance was not hard to miss, when they had that conversation, before their match. And how Julia is actually not Michelle's daughter by gene, is yet another missing piece of a puzzle, that he may need to complete, one way or the other. All he needed to do, was do a little bit of digging and he may strike gold. But he wanted to remain considerate, so he is not rushing things up.

Since it was getting late, Paul noticed, that the orphan children were still pumped and that Xavier was taking a break, as they had zapped nearly all of his energy. He decided to offer all the children, that were still present, as some of them had already gone to bed, a small piece of entertainment, that was sure to make them all a happy kind of sleepy and maybe even admire him. He gently pats Xavier's shoulder, as he passed by him.

"Hey kid. You can take a good night's rest now. I'll be handling this."

"What are you planning to do?"

"Just watch. You may learn something here."

He turned on the lights and stepped forward, so that all the kids could see him. He cheerfully waved at them.

"Hey, everything cool, kids? Since some of you still seem to be hyped, allow me to take you all on a journey."

He takes a blanket from close by, wrapping it over his throat to appear like some kind of superhero, posing very proudly, as he continued onwards with his monologue. Surprisingly, the orphans were all drawn to what he was doing. They paid close attention, as Paul told them the story, of an old legend, that was him.

"A journey, like no other! The tale of a man, that rose above everyone else and proved to everyone: He was the strongest… and bravest, in the whole universe."

His creativity shined through the exposition of his own story, which only served to make the children feel even more invested in his tale. He took a stick, attached a small orange to the tip to hold it close to the light, making it appear like the planet earth, before doing a shadow with his free hand, to try and make it look like an alien ship.

"It was a peaceful day on planet earth. The grass was green, the oceans were blue, all was well. This was a peace, truly worth protecting. But as everything else, there is sure to come a time, where someone was come and disrupt that peace! And the worst thing is: It came from above. Beyond the stratosphere."

His hand came closer to the stick, as the kids watched in envy and investment, signalizing, it was proving to be effective. And the alien ship came closer, clashing with the planet… and with the flies being still in the room, he drew the light over to the flies, to give the impression: There were smaller alien aircrafts, invading the planet. He then shook the stick, to signalize fear and mass hysteria.

"Oh no! They came! The alien threat! They came to eat us and conquer our world! Who can save us now?!"

He then drops the stick for a moment to jump and land back down to the ground, really posing like a superhero, while morphing the towel around his throat into a cape again.

"Simple answer: Me."

Though very simplistic, the kids seemed to really enjoy it. They all yelled "yay!", just to celebrate his arrival.

"And here, it began. I decided to make a deal with these otherworldly creatures! I challenged them all to one-on-one matches. And I am going to win, beating everyone, down to the last alien left standing. And I am not kidding: It was a whole army. But nonetheless…"

He then borrowed someone's puppet, promising to give it back to them later, once it's over and done with and like before, he positioned the small doll in the light to make it appear monster-like. We then see Paul doing another shadow with his free hand, as if he is punching the "alien" with his fingers.

"…I got down to business with them, beating the aliens, one by one. The battle was tough. And I was just a one-man-show. But because I was the only one, strong enough to withstand this threat, I kept on going, knowing that the world was at risk. This thought is what was bearing down on me. And still, fought my way to the top. My armor was torn, my muscles ached, my glorious hair began hanging powerlessly. And then… I met him."

He made the shadow of the doll bigger, making it appear like the "chief" of all aliens and the children gasped, as Paul let out a semi-menacing, but still comical and stereotypical villain laughter, as he tried to talk like a bad guy."

"Muhahaha! You are down to your last bit of oxygen, Paul! You are the only one left! No exits! And I will prove to you: The human race is in desperate need of extermination, before they destroy themselves! Prepare to meet your maker!"

He began speaking as himself again, with the kids being at the edge of their seats.

"The final battle. This will be the crowning moment of my entire career as a martial artist. I was extremely worn out. My vision was fading in and out. And with me taking the fatal blows, I almost gave up hope of this battle ever ending in my favor. But then, in a moment, where he didn't pay attention to my moves…"

He then turned the doll towards his free hand, making it "fly at it"…

"…until I…"

…before the hand imitates Paul's Deathfist, making it land straight against the doll's stomach.

"…finished him off, with my best trump card. The Deathfist. And it lived up to its name."

The puppet then "drops dead" in mid-air, as the hand "raises its arm" in victory, with the kids cheering, before falling asleep on the spot, ever so happily.

But even though, the ending was satisfying, unfortunately… it was a metaphor for what really happened in his glory days. And Paul's gaze softened up, as he had to sulk a little, thinking about the turning point in his career…

"…but later, he found out, he was still alive… and that he missed his chance…"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	3. A Scarred Man's Tale

Chapter 3: A Scarred Man's Tale

The following days, were all about these two things: Getting Forest back to full strength and even help Michelle, in "repairing" her sporting condition. Paul has already made quite friendly acquaintances with both her and her daughter, Julia. He already began to feel at home here, than he has ever felt in years, anywhere else. And as Forest was on his way to absolute recovery, he also decided to be more useful around the house himself, by cooking for the orphans and all the other attendants, or by assisting with the clean-up.

It all went smoothly. And for the last 5 days, Paul and Michelle were already working hard together, with her trying her best to not collapse in less than a few minutes. Progress was made, as Paul has been a little strict with her, which, in hindsight, she did not mind, as it was done to not make her fall back to square one again. The lesser she wasted time moping around, the better.

But by the 6th day, Paul felt something was in the air. It was dense and quiet, but not in a pleasant way. The atmosphere gave him the feeling, that something pretty important is going on right now. The first sign, was him realizing, that except him and Forest, at this early hour, nobody was at the orphanage. Literally, he even looked through the small dorms of the young orphans and still, nothing. It felt like he was in a ghost town.

"That's weird… normally, this house would be crammed with all the kids, ready to chomp down on some fresh bacon and sunny side eggs. Where did they all go?"

It was then at that moment, where he heard loud bell sounds from outside. And he was quick to figure out, that this wasn't from entrance of this house. It came… from the church. And he began to wonder: Are they all in there? He wanted to investigate.

"Not saying, I'm a believer, but a small peekin' might not hurt."

He got off of his chair and went outside to get over to the church. It may seem dark, even from the outside, but he swore, he could see small bulbs of light in there. Probably burning, little candles. And once he peeked through a small gap in the door, he could see, that all the orphans, along with Michelle, Julia and Xavier, were all seated inside the church, with a picture of a jaguar-masked person, positioned on a stand, in the middle of the hall. He could not really tell, what they were all doing, but what was indeed apparent, was the strict silence. Were they all paying their respects to this masked person's picture?

"What is this all about? Did someone pass on, to the great beyond?"

But once he saw Michelle, on one part of the hall, shedding thick tears of grief, with her head lowered… he could already tell: The person, that they are grieving over, must have been someone truly special to them all. And he instantly began to feel a great amount of sympathy within.

"Michelle…"

He paid his own respects, by following their example and pray for the person's well being in heaven. However, he then remembered something. The masked guy… this is the same person, that he once faced in the tournaments, or at least, has seen a number of times in the tournament listings and in action. If this was the same guy, that he has seen a number of times in the present… has he been watching a ghost, this whole time? That troubling realization made the American champ's skin comically crawl.

"But wait, I could swear… I've seen this guy before, haven't I…?! Or am I really going nuts now? If this happens to be the same wrestler I have watched in the Mishima hosted tournaments… have I… been watching and fighting a freaking POLTERGEIST…?!"

He began to panic and run back to the house, quickly closing the door behind him, before taking a seat in the kitchen again to process what he has witnessed just now. He could not believe it. Was it real? Did his eyes just play mindgames on him? He had to calm down somehow, just to find a thin line between reality and surrealism.

"This is seriously freaking me out, no joke. Was I just seeing things…? Yeah, that must be it…! There is no way, that this guy, is a ghost…! Maybe because it's so early in the morning, some people tend to have hallucinations. It's gotta be that…!"

But then, he began to sweat nervously, since he starts to believe, that this orphanage must be cursed, if they can actually bring people back from the dead to fight for them... or so he thought. Still, even if it was a mere hunch with no actual proof at hand, he was in need of confirmation for himself. So he decides to take matters into his own hands and settled on bombarding Michelle with a butt load of questions about this topic. With how freaked he was, he could not care less, if she didn't feel like it, because now, she owes him some answers. In return, just to remain a man of fair plays for once, he may also reveal HIS biggest secrets, just so they can go at each other as equals.

"OK, now I am really curious. This family seems to withhold a number of secrets in their cellar and I won't leave, until they tell me, what is actually going on here. And since we are already at it… who was this person on the photo? I know you will hate me later for this, Michelle… but considering you already were so secretive about "certain" things, during our conversations, now may be the good time to get things straight and put all the cards on the table with me. Yeah, me included."

To pass the time, he was in the garage, cleaning up his motorcycle to give it an almost daily beauty and tuning routine. He could not contain his excitement about what is still to come between him and the owner of this orphanage. He wants to help her, but this won't get them far, if she is refusing to open up to him. He has an open ear for everything and is willing to assist as best as he could.

LATER THAT DAY…

After a hearty lunch, Forest decided to test out, whether he was fully ready to go outside yet or not and he did that, by going outside to play with the kids, along with Julia and Xavier. Michelle was in the living room, taking a rest on the couch, since she had already spent quite the number of energy helping out Forest with the cooking process, for the children. She did not realize, what is about to happen, pretty soon.

Paul returned back inside the main house of the orphanage, after a small tuning session on his motorcycle, and judging from the look on his face, he was more than ready. He knew, it was kind of selfish to be demanding something that may be haunting the owner again, but since he was already here and they welcomed him and Forest with open arms, it's time to pay up. And he did all this for her sake as well, since it may help her become stronger than before, if he helps her surpassing her own demons of the past.

"Hey Michelle… do you have a moment?"

"Ehhh, I was just about to take a nap, but whatever… what do you want to talk about?"

Already, that serious need of escapism lit up in her eyes. She caught a very distinct glimpse of Paul having taken a thief-like look inside, when she was in the church, praying for a deceased friend. She could already sense the champ's burning desire to get some answers out of her and she obviously is not liking this one bit.

"About that meet-up at the church… are you hiding something from me or what—"

There it was. That was her cue to get up and escape this conversation at the last second, so she chuckled nervously, as she quickly got up and made her way to the stairway to get to the office to, as an empty excuse, do some paperwork…

"Oh, I just remembered I had to—"

…only to be then stopped dead in her tracks, by Paul stepping right in front of her, to block the path to the office.

"Nope. No running away now, dear. You won't talk yourself out of this. Not. This time."

She already was quick to realize, that he saw right through her. And not being able to contain her real feelings any longer, she let out a hoarse chuckle, while looking at the fry hair with a look, that can be described as, she was looking down on him.

"Oh, for someone like you, I never once realized you even had a brain. And if you actually have one, then let me through… you understand?"

"I already made myself clear. Don't make me repeat myself."

"And what if… I MAKE YOU?"

She then lashes out on him, angrily swinging her fist at him, ready to let it connect with his face, but he caught it in time, gripping it tightly, making the message even clearer, that he is not going to oblige to her desire.

"To think, I believed you to be such a good liar. And I already expected this place to be all sparkles and sunshine. But I suppose, you are not such a good liar, after all. For someone like you… you lie, WAY too bad."

He could see, that he was pushing her straight into a corner. She should have realized by now, that he is not going to ignore a problem, if he sees it. For years, he was looking for easy way outs, but to make up for lost fights, he definitely will not let this slip through. And the grip around her knuckle ever tightened, making the message as clear as daylight.

"Paul. I'm warning you. Stop making this difficult and let me through."

"Ironically, I used to find many shortcuts, in the times of crisis, and even if I belong to those people, that willfully always wanted to live in blissful ignorance, that with you is one thing, I am NOT going to write off as irrelevant. Times change… and let me ask… how can I trust you, if you don't trust me?"

"I beg of you…! Let me through!"

"Michelle, tell me! Who is this guy, with the mask?!"

"That's none of your freaking business, you blonde numbskull! Out of my way, NOW!"

He could see, that tears were beginning to form in her eyes, as she tries to punch him with her other arm, but even that got caught by his other hand. Now, she harshly shakes around, wanting to break free, but Paul wouldn't let her. He refused to follow her orders, which only served to make her even more desperate. He had to ask again, with his tone become more penetrating than before.

"Who was he? Is some kind of cover up going on here?"

"Let go of me, asshole! Let. Me. Through!"

"Who was he, Michelle? I am really starting to lose my patience with you, just tell me already!"

Now tears were leaking out like waterfalls out of her eyelids, as she thrashed around ever harder, starting to shriek her phrases now, making it harder for Paul to lock her down.

"LET! ME! THROUGH!"

"Can you be a little more creative, damn—whoa!"

But then, he lost his balance, as Michelle's shaking caused him to not only lose his hold on both of her balled up fists, but also fall straight off of the stairway, right onto the orphanage owner, almost crushing her with his weight. That fall caused the both of them to grow silent, with Michelle no longer having the strength to withhold her sobs and her salty tears. It's becoming more and more apparent to the KOIFT3 champ, that this woman must have seen something so special, in that masked wrestler… whoever he was. And with her voice, that was barely a whisper, accompanied by painful chokes on her own sobs, she had to ask this, as she didn't understand, why Paul would care so much.

"Paul… why… why are you doing all this…? Why would you go… to such lengths for me…? I barely even know you… why are you so determined to… help me... in the first place…? Ever since you set foot here… you have been doing nothing, but insisting so hard on getting me back to top form… nothing that happens to me is of any concern to you… so… why do you even bother trying…?"

This was the moment for Paul to finally get real with her. And this time, with no exceptions. Even without really knowing anything about her private life and her own struggles, he could not possibly bear to see her like this. Since he used to have a similar phase like hers now, it'd only make sense for him to try and relieve her of some of the heavy load, that she seemed to have carried on her back for hell knows how many years.

"…Because I see a friend in you. And even if you didn't tell me, even a total dimwit like me could tell, that nothing is OK with you. That's not how I got to know you, Michelle. And when you look this miserable, even the dumbest kind of people would be able to see, that you are a broken mess. It's not THAT hard. Heh, you're not even trying to hide it. And yet you expect others around you to just accept it and deal with it, like it's the most normal, every-day thing in the world. Newsflash, it's not. Trust me, I know all too well, what I'm talking about."

He got off of her, to allow herself to get seated, looking at her with genuine warmth in his gaze. During this small exposition, he had to reminisce of the times, right before the announcement of the 4th tournament, where he was at his lowest point in life. Where he tried everything in his might to prove, that he was the best there is. And in the end, all that he received from that was scorn and rejection. Even if it was his own fault, for having allowed his arrogance to get the best of him, he could not really blame himself either, since he truly believed to have beaten Ogre. Anyone should have given him the benefit of a doubt. But it never happened. Nobody stepped in for him. Not even Law. So he had every reason to spare Michelle of a fate as cruel as his, even if nobody would accept him so easily, since he is way too kind at heart, for his own good.

"And whenever I see one of my friends trying to carry the weight of their past sins, all by themselves… I cannot just stand by and do nothing. It's by mere instinct, that I want to assist you in your way back to your old self. Good start so far, but still not enough."

He took out a small handkerchief and used it to gently brush away Michelle's tears, feeling quite a little struck by her sadness, himself. And he hated to be cruel, but this will only lead back on the right track, if he got her to finally open up to him, even if it's just a little. He really had to pull himself together, without getting a tight knot in his stomach, out of genuine remorse for even considering this option in the first place.

"So… tell me about. Who was this guy?"

The vice leader of her own tribe is now trying herself to get back on track and stands up, offering Paul a hand, being now ready to spill the beans.

"Alright, since you already were so curious, I guess I cannot really keep secrets around you, now can I? Now get up, I'll prepare some tea."

He took her hand and both sat down at the dining table, putting all the cards on the table and whether it will be a full house or not, that is all up to them. But having found a small bit of courage again, she was willing to follow along with Paul's plan. She served herself and her personal trainer some warm tea, just for the sake of keeping their throats wet.

But despite him being willing to be supportive of her, she still had to pull herself together, without breaking down in tears again and Paul could tell from the way her hands tightly gripped the table edge.

"Now then, you were wondering who that masked man was, weren't you? Let me just say this. This person is not the same as the person you were seeing in all of the tournaments. I'm just going to assume, you must have felt kind of freaked out, when you thought, that this guy was the same one, that you should have encountered in the Mishima hosted tournaments, a good number of times. But no, do not be alarmed. Because the King you see now, is still alive. But this photograph showed his predecessor."

"Wait, predecessor? So no Poltergeists of any kind?"

"No, you dork. That King you keep seeing, is the new one. The old one… unfortunately passed away, long ago. He is also the same person that ever got the idea of opening up this very orphanage here, to begin with, once he made a name for himself in the wrestling world. Every child, both young and old, looked up to him. He was an inspiration for many, including myself."

Her grip on the table edge was becoming ever tighter, causing small creaks to escape the somewhat crusty wood.

"But here is the catch, he didn't die through natural causes… he got murdered…"

When he heard that, Paul immediately felt heartfelt anger on the inside. He could briefly recall this King always having been a man of honor and fair play. There was no way a man of his caliber and greatness, would ever really have any enemies. But now having found out the truth, that he got killed by someone, he instantly wanted to know: Who would ever think about killing a good man like him? One that gave many homeless orphans hope and offered them a roof over their heads until they'd get eventually adopted? But it only got worse, because now Michelle unveiled, who exactly killed him and judging from the slow forming of tears in her eyes, it could not be good.

"Say what…? By who?"

"…by Ogre."

That instantly struck Paul, like a butcher knife, right through the heart. This green skinned monster, that he previously believed to have been beaten at his hand, not only survived his thrashing… no, he also claimed a poor victim's soul for himself and out of all of them, the 1st King, was his to take. But this was only the beginning. And once more, Michelle seemed like at the verge of crying, yet again, as these scarring memories resurfaced in her subconscious.

FLASHBACK

We see a troubled looking, younger Michelle, facing her mother, who has become the new leader of the Indian tribe, who was looking at her with a sorrowful gaze herself. She was tasking her own daughter to go and investigate on something really important, even if she didn't like this idea.

"Right before the 3rd tournament was even on its way, I heard rumors among my own tribe, that someone was planning to summon an ancient demon of the past, that had its date of birth, all the way back to the times of the Aztecs. I deemed these rumors to be completely baseless at first… until my mother informed me about something. Her spirits have given her an alarming vision of this very god himself, returning back to the earth, ready to wreck havoc among us mortals. And ironically, it'd all go down at the hands of a mortal, meaning, someone was planning on awakening him from his eternal slumber."

We then see a quite haunting shot of Michelle taking a concerned look at a newspaper article, which listed up all of the missing fighters, with photographs of them. Her face then became a quite shocked one, because she realized: She knew these people. Or at least, has seen them in action, in the tournaments she used to compete in. And the people listed are: Lee Chaolan. Bruce Irvin. Baek Doo San. Wang Jinrei. Kuma. Nina Williams. Anna Williams. And even Kazuya Mishima. Seeing them all, she immediately began to feel alarmed. Something definitely was not right.

"It didn't help, that, at the time, the unnerving news spread that a certain number of previous contestants from the King of Iron Fist Tournament have gone mysteriously missing, without a trace. She tried to come in contact with other tribes in different parts of the US to gather some more information about this "God of Fighting" and the possible whereabouts of these victims. But as it turns, several books or documents, that proved the existence and origin of this mythical beast, were all abducted and nobody, not even close relatives of these missing martial artists, had even a remote hunch of where they could have gone off to. Having found no other possible way, not wanting to risk any lives among my tribe or the others, my mother tasked me to go to Japan and meet up with the wretched, Heihachi Mishima."

We then see her kissing a teenager Julia, goodbye, before flying to Japan and facing the old Mishima, with absolute bravery written all over her. Of course, the Mishima was not really amused by this, but to not immediately fall for that, he remained calm and decided to talk it out with the Native American.

"But honestly, this was one of the worst ideas ever, as it turns out. Because, as we talked, he saw the pendant, that was connected to my necklace, the one thing, that he needed in order to complete the ritual. I remembered how one of Kazuya's servants wanted to take it from me, when my mother was abducted by him and back then, I never realized what kind of purpose it served… until I realized too late, thanks to this old geezer…"

The old Mishima then grabbed Michelle by the throat, telling his men to block all exits for her.

"…this pendant was the missing key to the completion of this malicious game, as he then revealed to me, that he was the one, planning on summoning it. I lost consciousness shortly after, due to him having nearly squished the life out of me..."

We then see her waking up, in an ancient temple, tied to one of the rock poles that was perfectly lined up in the hall with all the others. And she came to the shocking realization: These people, that were lined up on the poles, where the majority of all people, that were deemed to be missing, in the newspaper article, that she read back home. Her stomach began to churn, as she realizes: She was about to become a tribute offering for the "God of Fighting". Fear, was written all over her face. Nothing but unbridled fear for her life, as that one certain thought, which she had deemed impossible at first, began to resurface in her mind, only adding to her misery.

"I found myself waking up in what seemed to be an ancient and forgotten temple, somewhere in South America, so it seemed. I looked around myself and found almost all people that I saw on this newspaper article, tied to a pole, like me. The ones, that weren't present, however, were the Williams siblings and Kazuya. None of them were conscious to their own predicament that they were in. I tried to break free, but the chains were not only tied around my lower body, but also around my wrists and it burned like hell, trying to shake them off. And then it happened…"

Michelle had to helplessly watch, how Heihachi came out of the darkness, carrying up to three different blood samples in separate small testing tubes, along with Michelle's pendant and with a few Tekken Force soldiers following suit, obviously acting as the bodyguards of this old martial artist. Then, Heihachi swiftly drew a knife, to cut up a small bit of the bodies of his captives, to then splatter the drops of blood all over the center of the pole circle. In a way, as if he was trying to "paint" something. He cut Michelle too and with her drop of sacrificial blood, came the last three mysterious blood samples from the test tubes in his grip. And once Heihachi even cut himself up as well, to perfect the ritual, he began to speak up a summoning spell, in an old language, that was long forgotten, as his men then pushed a small sarcophagus into the circle, that had ancient inscriptions written all over the top part. Soon, he ended the ritual, by putting the pendant that was soaked in blood, on top of the inscriptions, right in the middle, before smashing the sarcophagus in half, along with the accessory, through a very precise Karate chop hitting the center.

And out of the shell came forth a dark red mist that soon began to form a swallowing dark hole in mid-air, that'd consume anything in its path. As a reaction, the men undid the chains of the captives, just to allow the unconscious bodies to get all sucked into the black void, disappearing into oblivion, so it seemed. Soon, it was Michelle's turn and just when she was about to get freed by force and she deemed all hope lost for her… she suddenly heard punching sounds behind her. An ambush? At a time like this? But once she realized, that even Heihachi got knocked clean out, along with the other Tekken Force soldiers… she happily realized with enormous relief, who just saved her life. It was King.

"…this madman, Heihachi, tried to use me and the others as offerings for this ancient deity. And just when it seemed darkest, HE arrived. King."

Both embraced, but their happiness got interrupted by this towering, burning shadow, that came forth, revealing itself to be Ogre. Even though, she escaped its grasp, he seemingly still had enough power to revive itself in physical form. So this was it. She and King decided to stop this thing from claiming more innocent souls, instantly thinking of the children at the orphanage. Both fought bravely. But just like how the 2nd King previously explained… this fight did not end without another casualty. And that was his master. Now, by that point, Michelle's voice began to crack and she started to violently shiver, remembering exactly, how her lover found his gruesome end, at the hands of this animalistic monster.

"We fought and fought and fought… but this ungodly beast, seemed invincible… no matter what we threw at it, it wouldn't budge… and then, just when it was about to deliver the killing… blow… he… he… he…!"

We then see a shot of the 1st King being penetrated through the chest, by Ogre's open palm. Blood, immediately began to flow and Michelle was left in absolute shock. It was like, when this monster bore through his body… it felt like she got hit by it too, even he couldn't reach her. But having to relive this memory, her heart began to pump out of her chest, as if it was about to experience a nuclear meltdown. And even though she didn't say it out loud, Paul can imagine all too well, what this breakdown of hers meant and he felt for her, deeply.

We then see Michelle weeping, as the legendary wrestler passes on, while still being in her loving grip… and right before he died, his last words to her were:

King: "Michelle… please, promise me… that you will protect my pupil… and the kids… even if it may… cost your life… for something like this… it always worth… shedding your… blood… over… and…! Always remember… my heart… shall always belong… to you… Michelle…"

FLASHBACK ENDS

"He died protecting you, huh…? Is that what you are trying to tell me?"

Now Paul finally understood, why Michelle was refusing to open up to anyone. She could not cope with the fact, that her beloved role model and possibly even soul mate, got himself killed, all because of her. And to this day, she is still blaming herself for his death. That she was too weak to save him. That she had to be saved by him, with the price having been his own life. But it wasn't only this, as Michelle unveiled more.

"Shortly after… I learned that even Jun… of all people… encountered this monster… I could have stopped it all… I could have been the one to save everyone…! But I couldn't even do that…! I'm so worthless…! Get it now…? I never deserved your help… nor that of my beloved daughter… or Xavier… or King… I am nothing short of a burden and nothing else…"

Paul had no other choice anymore. He shifted his chair right next to her and gently wrapped his arm around her shoulder, to allow her to continue her crying on his shoulder to ease the pain a little, wanting to offer her comfort. And hearing this story, for some reason, it all reminded him of a certain someone: Himself.

He remembered how he and Law actually went separate ways, shortly after the 7th tournament and how he had realized a little too late, HE had been the real burden to both him and his family this entire time. For how many times his foolish plans got both him and his best friend into all kinds of trouble, with the last time nearly having been their reassured death sentence, once he was gone, he immediately began to regret it all and he realized: Law was right. And he was way too proud to admit, since all he cared about was his own ego of rebuilding his own career as the "toughest in the universe". So he muttered to himself:

"Heh, more like the "nuttiest in the universe"…"

Having overheard this, she snapped out of her weeping state, wanting to know, why he said that just now.

"Hmm…?"

"OK, Michelle. Since you did your part, now it's about time, I did mine. You're probably wondering about my own motives, by now. How I even got the idea of wanting to help you, in the first place. The biggest reason being simply this: To right my wrongs."

She somewhat calmed down enough to listen and there it went.

"What are you talking about?"

"Easy. It may not seem like it, but I am not the man, who you think I am. In fact, if you ever saw me for real, I think, you might have reconsidered ever allowing me to set foot here. I am serious. I am not even trying to crack a joke here, even though I'm supposed to be the jokester from the sidelines. And honestly, I would have never blamed you, if you were to have declined my offer, if you knew this about me."

He needed a short moment to gather his thoughts and put it all together for her to understand, since there was more to him, than it seemed.

"Maybe I'm beating a dead horse here, but I feel like, it'd be unfair towards you, if you were to be the only one to be sharing some "risqué" info about yourself. Consider this "The Tale of the Fallen Phoenix". What a name…"

He thought back to the times, where everything was still innocent at its core, where everything was easier. Where he, like all of us, had his humble beginnings.

"To start things off: I did not have the happiest of childhoods. I mean, how would you feel, being born into a family, with your mom already having passed on to the great beyond, the moment you were given life, while you and your old man were left behind to rot in this living hellhole? And being exposed to your daddy's drinking habits, all the while barely having any income and living off of the bare minimum, with most of it being wasted on smokes and booze? That is the type of world I was harshly born into, but you know something? I eventually stopped caring. I realized, I had to take matters into my own hands and thanks to Law, with whom I went through thick and thin together since my 7 years on earth, slowly but surely, I dug my way out."

He frowned, when he said the following.

"And it all started with me, showing my father, that you just don't provoke an animal that can bite back. All I needed was a good spot and down he shall go. …and I succeeded. For the record, I did not commit any murders here, all I did, was just knocking him clean out. I just wanted to let him know: Even the small can accomplish the greatest of achievements. All that was required was courage… and a blazing soul."

He then grinned a little, because he liked this part of his story. And he still could not fully grasp it himself, but it was real.

"Speak of the devil. It was also thanks to that "blazing soul", that I finally discovered of what I was truly destined for."

FLASHBACK

We see a shot of a teenager Paul, being busy watching a motorcycle stunt show, that was currently running on TV. He watched it all inside a small rental store of electronics. A young Law was with him and even though he could not understand his best friend's fascination with motorcycles, he at least appreciated his ever growing passion for this sport that was all the rage at the time. What he did indeed understand though: Paul has always been in love with motorcycles, ever since he learned how to think.

And like a true friend, the two tried everything they could together to gain extra cash, just to finance all the parts necessary for Paul to build a bike out of from scratch. Buying a full on motorcycle would have been way too pricey for their general source of income and because Paul already learned how to build and repair these sleek, mechanical predators, they went for the easier way: Buy old parts separately and turn the junk into a beast of a motorcycle. And because both were quite talented martial artists to boot as well, they took part in all sorts of street fights and underground tournaments, just to gain enough money, so that Paul can make his dream come true.

"Before I even became a true martial artist, I was leaning more towards the one thing that would define me for the years to come: Motorcycles. And stunt shows. I desired the glamour. The roar of the crowd. I'd make a name for myself. For once, my old man's job of trying to fix vehicles in his garage, proved to be a really valuable source of inspiration to me, as it would serve its purpose of making me a technician… and last but not least, a star. Me and Law fought our ways through endless hordes of thugs and wannabe-martial artists. It was bloody, it was strenuous and it drove us beyond our limits, especially with how limited our resources were too. But in the end, we won enough money to buy the parts from junkyards and after a whole week of tuning, melting and crafting…"

We then see a photograph of Paul, proudly posing with a thumb up, next to his motorcycle, which he had entirely built from scratch. It looked rusty and cheap, but its performance shall prove to be FAR from cheap. And this overall design would remain alive, even today, with how many times it got wrecked and repaired. After a few test drives, which also resulted in a few wreck ups, which wasn't a big deal, since Paul would easily repair it back to old shape in no time, he decided to give it the name: The Rising Phoenix. Since it would always find a way to get back on track, you could call it, "the motorbike, that always manages to rise from ashes and return in a blazing inferno".

"…"The Rising Phoenix", was born. Of course, it did not come without difficulties. I don't even need to explain, how many times I managed to drive that poor baby into the next best wall. And still, somehow, I always found a way to get it back to primo shape and its performance remains firmly solid. Like a phoenix, it rises from the ashes and returns with a big bang. And even if we finally created a masterpiece of a bike, we still needed a way to go and get some sponsors, so that we can get financial backers, to make my entrance into the world of motorcycle stun shows much easier. And for that, we found a solution…"

We then see Paul and Law meeting up with no other than, Lee Chaolan, who greets the two with open arms. Even at the time, before he got adopted by Heihachi Mishima, he was considered a legend, even with his young years. And he got quite wealthy, because of his job at a company, which was working hard to widen the possibilities of home computer technology, which was still in its childhood in the 80s and not accessible to everyone. And being a generally kind person, of course he was willing to help the two friends with a sponsorship.

"…Lee Chaolan. Even back then, this guy is a man of honor. He barely came out of difficult situations like us two and being quite intrigued with technology in general, he easily decided to help us. Having been quite impressed with my motorbike, just as well, which only gave him more reason to assist in our efforts. And after a while, the conditions have been met."

We see Paul, on his bike, dressed in a tight armor suit, ready to get this show on a roll and impress the crowd with his skills. Lee also had to help in that regard, because the American was far from flexible with his movement. So he decided to give him a few lessons of flamboyant moves that he could show off, while doing the stunts.

"Finally, I got accepted to compete. And from that point onwards, it was such a breeze. 'Course, got some mean comments from other competitors on how hideous and unstable my bike looked, that I would not survive with this thing for even 5 seconds, you know the drill. But tell this to my winning streak. I was practically not to be topped by anyone. Win after win after win, I grew to become a living legend and it got so good, I even decided to redesign my own baby and polish up with some fresh paint and flame lines and presto! My tuning game was top notch back then. I was on top of the world."

But fate strikes back, as we then see Paul, flying through the air, but due to the strong wind, he gets "derailed" and instead of landing on the other side of the ramp, he lands straight in a huge pile of gasoline filled barrels. Horrified stares spread across the crowd, as they all began to panic and run for their lives. Chaos ensued. The ambulance was called and the now unconscious Paul, who, by some miracle, managed to survive that harsh drop from the sky, with only mere bruises and one burnt arm, was brought to the hospital, where we see him lie in his own bed, with his entire right arm bandaged.

"But then, one day, I got a major low blow from fate itself and I suffered a horrible accident that very nearly killed me. And yet by some twisted means, I'm still alive and kicking. To this day, I can only theorize that the reason, why all this happened… it was destiny. My hopes were crushed when I learned from Lee, that the sponsors have left me behind to rot with any more financial backup. But in hindsight, that must have also been the best moment of my life, because it also inspired me to finally become a martial artist. Even, when I, Law and Lee had to go separate ways back then, I still highly value our friendship and I went away to settle down somewhere in New York with all the money I had left from my pros days in the stunt business, where I opened up my own workshop, in which I continued my old man's profession. But want to know the real reason, what inspired me?"

FLASHBACK ENDS

He points at his right arm to make Michelle have a close look at the burn marks. And he felt like a badass dork, as he was explaining it.

"Death marked me. He almost got me that day. But because I am known as the "Blazing Phoenix", nothing could get me down, because just like my bike, I'd rise back up from the ashes stronger and better than ever. Like all phoenixes do, don't they? And this is also where my special move, "Deathfist", comes from. Death himself, has left his burning marks on my right arm and since that very moment, everything that gets by my strong right, it "dies". Pretty cool, isn't it?"

The American felt kind of giddy on the inside having given this extraordinary description and he felt so cool, almost like a super hero. Even Michelle was cutely impressed.

"Huh, the more you know… so this move, that you beat me with, was initially, your golden trademark, in more ways than one…?"

"I guess, you could say that."

However, he then had to get give her a small reality check, because even he bears scars that are still fresh and are quite recent too. The shifting in his voice could also not be denied.

"But to make you understand, why I want to help you… it's easier to explain, than you think. Merely months ago, me and Law, got into one major argument, that quite simply resulted in us two, going separate ways again, but this time, not without hard feelings for one another. As a matter of fact, I truly believe, this time, I majorly fucked up. All because of my selfish need to prove myself, fighting an already lost battle for my presence in the media, having pulled Law and his family, time and time again, as the tournaments continued, through the mud with me… with the final straw having been my incredibly moronic idea to hire a "dojo guard" for Law, which almost got both me and my best friend killed… there won't be a "we" anymore, I'm afraid."

He facepalmed, as he continued with beating himself up for his selfishness. He wanted to help Law, but because of his ego and his lack of common sense, it only served to dig their graves ever deeper. And at the end of the day, it was all his fault to begin with, how he allowed his own pride to get in the way of his true greatness.

"Before you get any ideas of trying to defend me, it doesn't change nothing. I have to bear the responsibility for it, Michelle. Nobody else. And why I realize this now, I have no idea. I guess this entire hogwash of mine to prove myself to be the "toughest in the universe", needs to be renamed: The stupidest in the universe. Because that's what I am. I am a stupid idiot. Always was, always will be. I never cared for Law's feelings during all this, I never truly asked what he made of all this and it was only me, who was too blinded by my selfish desire to be the best, to see it with clear eyes. And it's all clear to me now. I am no legend. I am a nobody."

He then began to rest his face in his two hands, drowning in self-hate, as guilt came over him like a tidal wave.

"If only I got the chance to speak to him again and tell him how sorry I am. Now you see? I am doing this out of selfish desire to become a better one. Now you know. And maybe it's best if I take my leave. You and everyone else here deserve someone worthy of your time. And before I continue making a bigger clown of myself, I better go now… I am sorry for—"

"…No, please stay."

He then felt a strong grip around his wrist, just when he was about to grab the doorknob. It was Michelle, who was looking at him with pleading eyes, desiring him to stay. Now knowing who Paul really is, she felt great amounts of sympathy for him and since both are now even and know each other's demons, she felt like a brand new bond has been formed between her and him. Almost as if this was destined to happen. Having spilled her heart out to him, made her feel so at ease and knowing the truth about him and the great amount of remorse he carried around himself, she realized: There is absolutely no need to suffer alone. Sharing each other's fates, would be much more beneficial, so she lovingly held his hand, with two huge tears escaping her eyelids, making him feel indeed welcome.

"No Paul. You're not stupid. And you're especially not selfish, if you feel this guilty of your previous actions. My spirits have already embraced you and they are telling me: You are anything, BUT an awful person. If you are willing to correct your mistakes, then you are more than welcome here. In fact, the orphans have grown to love you. It'd be such a waste if you were to go so early. And if you want to… let us share the pain. It'd be easier… don't you think...?"

Having heard this, two huge salty tears even escaped from Paul's eyes and he felt so thankful for such warm kindness, that this orphanage owner had presented him. No more questions had to be asked. He let go of the door and went back to embrace Michelle, clearly feeling quite at home now.

"Thank you, Michelle… you seemed to have not forgotten, who you really are, likewise… and you're right. We may as well go through this as a team…"

"Of course, count me in…"

Meanwhile on the ouside…

As Julia was busy playing some soccer with the kids, suddenly, her phone rang and she ran away from the action to pick up.

"Excuse me, everyone. I'll be right back!"

She picked up, and what she heard, made her shudder deeply.

"Hello? Who am I speaking to?"

?: "You know who I am."

This grown man voice, actually began to freak her out. The number was not listed and given the slightly heavy breathing, coming through the speakers, she felt slightly unnerved. Even more so, once he made this demand:

?: "You know too well, who I am. And unless you do want something to happen to your precious mother, you better listen up and follow my instructions. I can do it, you know."

"Who is this?! Who the hell are you? And how did you get my phone number?!"

Somewhere else, we see a shadow, with a small ponytail obscured in the dark, speaking to her through the line.

"You'll see, Julia Chang…"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	4. A Chilling Shocker

**Chapter 4: A Chilling Shocker**

Julia Chang was on the bus, on her way to the mall, with the stranger still on the phone, talking to her and giving her instructions on where to meet up with him. Under no circumstances was it even remotely pleasant to have your own phone number hijacked by some hacker. And Julia most certainly does not belong to those people that is willing to let herself get toyed with, so easily. So she made a decision: Follow the leads and find this creep, who seemingly found it hilarious to play with her emotions like this. Normally, it's not her style to be solving her problems with fists or verbal, aggressive feedback, but this mysterious person on the phone was legit threatening her and her family. She had to act fast, before the worse can even occur. And since he made no attempts at dropping hints of his real identity, she did not have much of a choice, but to abide by the conditions, that he had set for this game. She thought to herself, while frowning:

"So you want to play a game with me? Fine, I'm game. But do not expect to walk out of this with at least a few bruises on your arm, once I find you."

Then she continued with her conversation:

"Alright, I am now at the mall. Where should I go next?"

?: "Go to the lowest possible floor, that this mall offers. The cold storage room, to be more precise."

She had to roll her eyes and sigh in frustration, being a lot more aware now, of where this is going. The raw sarcasm was too real in her response.

"A storage room, hm? Now THAT doesn't sound shady as hell, now does it…?"

?: "What? It's the safest place on earth."

"Yeah. With no witnesses in sight, you might have an unfair advantage, you asshat."

?: "I like it, when you get ordinary. Now get on with it. You do realize what happens, if you don't follow my orders."

"OK, OK… I'll be on my way."

She didn't feel like pushing her luck, so she shut her mouth, feeling slightly panicked and regretting her harsh words immediately. That was dumb. Her insult might have really pushed it all in even further. She didn't waste any time and immediately went on ahead to go to the desired meeting spot. But with every step of the way, her anger and disgust increased, with every second that she is wasting her precious time.

"You asshole…! Who does he think he is…?! No, I got to stay calm… who knows what he might be up to, should my tongue slip again. But I swear to god, if I find him, then he is going to be sorry…!"

Julia did as she was told and through the huge masses of people, she managed to get to the stairs, that lead to the lower floors, to a parking lot and even deeper. Normally, she would have used the elevators, but since she didn't want to cause any commotion and alarm other mall visitors, she decided to take this matter into her own hands, all by herself. Besides, she used to be in far more riskier situations than this. Compared to her sneaking passed heavily armed Tekken Force soldiers during the 3rd Tekken tournament, or breaking into Dr. Abel's laboratory without getting noticed in the 4th tournament, that is child's play.

Soon, she reached floor -3. The lowest possible floor in this mall. She picked up the phone again to continue the conversation.

"Alright. I am here. Where should I go next?"

?: "Easy. Just follow the corridor's path, until you reach a metallic door. It's normally closed off to the public, but I was kind enough to find a spare key and unlock it for you. So what about it? I am waiting."

"Just you wait. I'll be right on my way."

Julia gulped, before running down the corridor, not even caring about the crawling temperature decline, the further she got. The storage room must be close by. And sure enough, she found herself at a dead end. She saw four elevators on both sides, probably for the deliveries, that might need to be stored in cold temperatures, otherwise they might mold up. And just like the mysterious individual said: Two huge metal doors were awaiting her at the end of the hallway. And as predicted, they were unlocked.

"That must be it. I need to be cautious from here on out. Who knows, what he might be plotting."

She scraped together all of her courage and opened the door to enter inside. Suddenly, she had to stay dead in her tracks and shiver heavily, as the cooling system from the storage room was giving her the shakes. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the room she was in, was darker than dark. Not a single light source in this room was functioning, as if the repairmen quit their day job, right then and there.

"Oh my god, it's so cold in here…! And it's so dark in here, I can't even see my own hands… if this turns out to be a bad prank, then I am really going to be mad…"

But her small interference got interrupted by something even worse. She felt a small breeze that caused the door behind her to get tightly shut. She was already prepared to panic and scream for help, but because she didn't want to cause a scene and risk the safety of her loved, she kept quiet and tried her best to remain calm and collected.

She was already feeling in alert, just by the mere atmosphere of this room. The fact, that the lights are out and that the cooling system seems to not function properly, just as well… it almost feels like, all this was planned out to happen. Like, the person who gave her the call, was trying to lure her into a trap, from which there was no escape for her. And for how the room was constructed to be soundproof, she even doubts that any employee of this mall would be able to hear her pleading yells in time to get her away from there. Not that it really mattered anyway, because she was desiring some alone time with this individual anyhow, who seems to find it amusing to taunt her about her family.

But because she had no stable signal anymore, this deep down into the mall, she had to yell out for him to come out and stop this nonsense at once.

"OK, you creep! Come out of your hiding spot at once! I came here, just like you asked me to do! And now you owe me some answers! What in the world, do you want from me?! Go on, I am all ears! Because I can guarantee you that I won't be leaving here, unless we settle this matter now under four eyes!"

?: "…"

"Well? How about it? Will you come out? Or…"

She began to crack her knuckles, trying to make her threat seem a little more convincing.

"…do I have to MAKE you?"

?: "JULIA-CHAN!"

"Huh?! What in the—"

The very moment, she heard that all too familiar voice, her annoyance intensified even more. There was only one man on earth, that'd refer to her like this. And the thought of it sent shivers down her spine.

"Oh, please no…! Don't tell me—"

Suddenly, the lights went back on and we see, on the other side of the hall, Ganryu, dressed in a very fine and silky looking, dark blue suit, with a blood red rose attached to one of its front pockets, seemingly waiting for Julia to approach him. But the lights were not using the standard assortment this time. They all glow in a pink light, almost as if Julia had entered a brothel. And it didn't help, how the place began to smell like a huge bomb, that was filled to the brim with freshly cut roses. This entire scenery only disturbed Julia even further, as she remembered, that Ganryu always had a crush on her and her mother and now that they are both trapped in her, with no easy way of escape…

"Don't tell me, that I have been lured in here, all for this?! You got to be kidding me…!"

"Julia-chan! What are you doing in here?"

"Yeah, well, I could ask you the same thing, y'know! Why are you dressed like this?! And why is the entire storage room smelling like I had just entered a place, I'd never think about visiting under any circumstances?"

This entire situation seemed so fishy, it could not possibly be a coincidence that the two were meant to end up in here, locked inside, without a key at hand. And whenever Ganryu responded to Julia's flustered mood, she grew even more suspicious.

"…what are you talking about? No, wait! Don't get the wrong idea! I don't have anything to do with all this, I swear!"

On one hand, the way he sounded, gave the reforestation scientist to think. Maybe, he really is not responsible for this set up. The reason, why she considered this option, was because of how straight forward Ganryu normally is. He would almost never be too embarrassed about her. Hell, he even tried proposing to her, during the 5th tournament, without even thinking twice about this. And then comes the question: Would he really be smart enough to even hack into her phone and steal her number? And even threaten her, Michelle and the entire orphanage with death? She may not know him enough, but judging from how passionate he is about her and Michelle, it would completely contradict it all, if he was to even threaten her mother with something too awful for words.

But on the other hand, this does remain a pretty juicy situation, no doubt, because anybody would just deem the sumo wrestler a demented stalker, with a disturbing obsession for two protectors of nature. And the fact, that all of this is taking place somewhere, where help would be tough to come by, seeing how soundproof this area is, it could also be seen as too scripted to be deemed a mere "accident" or "coincidence".

Either way, Julia tries to approach this situation with a little more care, even considering Ganryu, since he also seems pretty confused about all of this.

"I hate to break it to you, Ganryu, but the way you are dressed and the fact, that the two us, just happen to encounter one another, in a completely secluded area like this, accompanied by objects, that'd normally find their way into every candle light dinner, I have a tough time believing you. Just so you know. So who is to say, that you might be lying to me right now?"

"Hold the phone. The way I am dressed…?"

He then looked down and he realized, he was in a suit, as if he was ready for a date or something. His shocked expression could only be described as: This cannot be orchestrated by him.

"Why am I in a suit? And while we are at it, where exactly are we? To clear things up, before you assume something off track, I did indeed plan on meeting you, because I just so happened to have a business meeting here in Arizona. But not even in a million years would I ever get the glorious idea to lock myself up somewhere, just to meet up with you… and I am quite puzzled, I tell you. I simply cannot recall ever having come here, knowingly."

"So you are saying, I am wrong?"

"I don't even know where we are. And then comes my next question: How did you find me in here? I never called out for you, or anything…"

"Strange, because some weirdo called me on my phone and it just so happened to have guided me all the way down here. And by some freaky coincidence, you happen to be in here, just as well. Locked up helplessly like me. But if you are saying that you can't even recall ever going here by choice…"

Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind. She did not know exactly, why that idea came to her, but it may need to be tested. Just to see, if her fears hold value.

"Wait, Ganryu! Check your phone!"

"What are you saying?"

"Check through your call history! In the last 30 minutes, was it you, that gave me a call?"

"Wait, let me see…"

But to his shock, he realized…

…indeed, in the last thirty minutes, he gave an unlisted number a call. Since it wasn't labeled, he went ahead to go along with Julia's idea and chose the number.

Suddenly, synchronized, with the button press, Julia's phone starts vibrating. That is what caused her heart to freeze up in shock. She looked at the display and realized: That was the exact same number, that had called her to come to the mall. And when she picked up, she heard Ganryu's voice through the speakers.

"Hello?"

"Julia… wait a second, is that your number?! What in the name of all this holy is going here…?!"

"…so it was you, you creep!"

"No, wait! Listen to me, please! I did not—"

But just when Julia was about to go on ahead and give Ganryu a very fine kind of piece of her mind, the two then heard a shadowy voice, emanating from somewhere ambiguous.

?: "Hahahahahaha! How adoring, you figured it out, my dear Julia Chang. And you too, my dear Ganryu. You played your part very well. I bow before you."

Both stopped dead in their tracks, immediately feeling alarmed. Wanting to find the source of the voice, Julia instantly tackled the idea of trying to track it down, as she still deemed it an unfunny prank. However, that thought was quickly crushed, as her own spirits began warning her, that this was not some sort of trickery from Ganryu or anybody else.

"Hey! Show yourself! Who are you?!"

Ganryu though, was not blessed with the same ability that Julia withheld, so hearing the menacing voice, made him go full-on panic mode, as he began to sweat like a waterfall.

"You heard the lady! Where are you hiding?! Oh my god, I am innocent, I swear to ones above, I am not guilty of any of this! If it helps, then I will turn myself in, if that's what you desire!"

He froze up, once this voice even echoed directly in his mind, causing him to get severe migraine, being forced to bend over, until he is on his knees, tightly gripping his head to try and ease the pain, as the unknown voice in his head slowly took shape right in front of him.

?: "Of course, you're not, you imbecile! All you were was just a mere pawn to me. And I must say, you served me quite well, luring this girl right into my trap. How good it felt to finally have a living body again after all these years, but now… I think it's about time to stop the pleasantries and get down right to business. I desire the life energy of all the strongest fighters that walk upon the face of this planet. And my patience is as thin as paper, so before we end up stalling… let's begin!"

Then, without warning, the lights suddenly start to malfunction, letting out sparks, as a dark shadow was descending down, right into the middle of the room, before opening its gaping holes, that are meant to be his "eyes", that showed off a deep shade of red. Now both Julia and Ganryu had every right to be scared for their lives. Whatever this thing was, it came for them and if his message is anything to go by, it desires their "life energy", whatever it really meant and for whatever purpose it may serve. And it just can't be a good one at that. The sumo wrestler was at the verge of shedding tears, as he went:

"…is panicking now allowed?"

Julia however, remained steady and faced this threat head on with no fear in her heart.

"What—what ARE you?!"

?: "…you'll soon learn… as soon as I am done with you!"

Once these words were spoken, this shadowy mist then sped right towards the sumo wrestler, who didn't react fast enough, resulting in that dark mist shaped being slowly fusing with him, which ends with him screaming in agony, tightly grasping his skull from both sides, yelling in pain, with Julia rushing straight forward to try and help him.

"What is… what is… what is… happening… to me?! Yaaaaaaaargh!"

A huge shockwave of black mist followed, as Ganryu's shrieks got accompanied by many crates falling off of the shelves and as Julia was now busy dodging the crates, she soon reached her opposition, who has now fallen silent.

"Ganryu!"

But once she reached him, the restaurant owner was just sitting there, on his knees, with his head hanging low, as if he just got hung from a loop. Even if Ganryu had been obsessed with her to uncomfortable levels, her compassion and sorrow always came first and even if what he did was wrong, he did not deserve to be tormented like this. She shook him, trying to make him snap out of his seemingly lifeless trance.

"Ganryu…! Speak to me! Ganryu!"

"…heh…"

"Wha—"

"…hehehehe! Hahahahahahahaha!"

Being caught completely off guard, Julia then found herself at the mercy of Ganryu's nearly inescapeable sumo grip, with his arms tightly wrapped around her lower torso. Normally, she should have been able to get out of the hold, but the amount of force that the former sumo champion put into this one certain grip, it made it practically impossible. And the grip this time, is a lot tighter than usual, almost as if he was planning on bearhugging Julia to death, until her spine cracks. And she is feeling it quite well. Hardly being able to breath, the scientist looks down on her number 1 fan, realizing something really off about him. His eyes were no longer normal. They were glowing a deep shade of blood red, with the veins around his arms and upper chest pulsating like hell… with a sadistic grin being literally painted on his lips. A grin, that Ganryu would never think about pulling off in Julia's presence, or anybody else's presence for that matter.

"Gan… ryu…! What… what are you… doing…?! Let… me go…!"

"Not a chance, my dear. Do you actually believe, I am just going to let you off the hook, that easily? I am in love with you. Duh. Wouldn't you please be so kind and offer this lonely, old fellow here some company?"

"Stop it…! My… my spine, I… I can't breathe…!"

"Oh, is it painful? Well then allow me to make it even tighter then! Hahaha! Anything for you, my sweet."

He made his threat a reality, as Julia's spinal cord nearly snapped in half… before, at the last second, she managed at last to break free, by headbutting Ganryu hard enough to get off of the hold and backflip backwards to retreat for a bit. She was panting, coughing out loud, as she regains the ability to breathe, before staring at her opposition with a cold frown.

"You can't be Ganryu. Not even I can possibly deem him capable of such sadism. Whatever you are, I am not going to give you any of my energy!"

"Oh, I am afraid, my dear, that it won't be that easy anyhow. I still have to follow rules and trust me: You won't be getting any chances. But neither will I."

He puts his hands behind his back, as he starts to smirk, being ready for anything, as he started his own monologue.

"Let me break it down for you. This will be an all or nothing kind of match. Do not dare to pull any punches. Come at me with everything you got. And the conditions are as follows: If you win, then I will leave you and your family alone. And you get to pay the smallest bit of soul energy over to my master. But if I win… you will be going out on a date with me. No "buts" allowed, got it? And as an addition, you will be paying a greater portion of your own energy. And trust me on that one…"

He licks his lips in a really perverted way, while staring at the reforestation activist with a wide grin that might as well belong to that of a serial killer with a few screws loose.

"…I will be treating you well, sweetheart. My dreams will come true and so will yours. I won't be disappointing you. And of course, no matter the outcome, even I have to pay with my own life source. But that depends on whether I will win, or lose. Unless, maybe, you might be considering the option of forfeiting now, so that you spare yourself the humiliation of dating me! It'd be a real shame, you'd throw away your once in a lifetime opportunity to be going out with a handsome stud like me! Hahaha!

Just hearing him talk like this already made her feel quite dirty on the inside. Going a date? With a man of his caliber? Possessed or not, this is not ever going to happen under any circumstances. Even if he was to beg on his knees, the answer will firmly remain an ice cold "No".

However, it was also as clear as day to her: This is no longer the same man she previously spoke to. This demon must be messing with his thoughts to make him say all these horrible things in the first place. She didn't exactly know, why she was still not viewing this man as a terrible person, but the fact remains: He may not be saying all these things by his free will. Nobody would be dumb enough to loudly speak out his or her own thoughts like that, so she could only assume, that, whoever just took possession over his mind, made his emotions go haywire, clouding his overall judgement of the entire situation. And again, despite the threats and the way the sumo champ was behaving, watching all of this happen, it still wasn't enough to make the scientist flinch one bit. It felt strange. For one thing, she always secretly desired to beat some sense into Ganryu to make him see reason at last, that she is not interested in him. But at the same time, since both are in trouble now, it won't be doing her any favors, if she beats the life out of him, all because of this demon desiring it, that now resides within Ganryu and obviously abuses him as his vessel for his still ambiguous goals.

"Does not seem like, I have much of a choice, do I? Fine, go on ahead! I'm right here!"

"You should be careful with what you wish for."

FIGHT!

Now it was on. Since Julia doesn't trust this shady creature, that had previously invaded her opposition, she is waiting for him to be the first to make a move. And indeed, it happened. Her usual strategy is to first wait, hold back and analyze her opponent, reading out their quirks and weaknesses, before going for their blind spots, without relying too much on raw strength to win.

Deep down, she knew however, that with the circumstances having changed for the worse and the fact, that something supernatural is pulling the strings here, she fears that common sense might not get her far, this time. She thought to herself:

"Whatever will happen, I need to be prepared. Who knows what this guy is holding in the back of his hand that my eyes can't see. Since he used dirty tactics so far anyhow to get me and Ganryu trapped down here, I am afraid that this won't be the last time. If he already went so far, he might be doing it again. I hope I can last long enough… spirits, I beg of you, I need thy help in this hour of urgency… give me the power necessary to win this."

Although, for once, her fortune was strong in this. Ganryu made the first move and it consisted of him charging straight at Julia, being ready to grab her around the waist again for that hold, he previously used on her to snap her spine in half. The female scientist nods, before acrobatically jumping straight over the restaurant owner's shoulders to then land right behind him and grab him by the midriff, just to perform a full powered version of a German Suplex on him. Indeed, that was quite the hit he took.

He quickly rolled out of her grip though, and is ready to jump up and land on her tummy, with his rear and full weight, attempting to break her ribcage. But unfortunately for him, Julia managed to roll to the side, just in time to avoid getting a few of her bones broken further. Then, to use a feint, she jumps forth and hits a confused Ganryu in the face, before quickly backspinning to get right behind him again, only this time, hitting him away from herself with both knuckles. He tumbles forward and swiftly turns around, looking at her with red glowing irises again, before then using his newly gained superhuman abilities to pick up one of the very heavy crates and throw it in her direction, with the upmost precision, that he could muster. And even though Julia was able to evade most of the crates he was throwing at her, while she was on her to him again…

…the last one shattered too early, right in front of her, causing one small piece of broken wood to pierce through the skin of her exposed, right ankle, causing her to gasp in shock at the sudden pain in her leg, before sliding below another crate, that the sumo wrestler was busy throwing at her, only to then uppercut the wrestler right into the air. That was her chance.

She speeds forward, elbowing him, Party Crasher style, repeating that for three times in a row, with the fourth time ending in her sending him flying with a roundhouse kick, which she finishes off by jumping frontally forward, just to grab the slightly airborne Ganryu by the sides, only to then smash him back onto the ground, causing him to roll away from her.

Suddenly, the pains kick in to the fullest now, as Julia's right ankle is starting to let out a burning pain. One of the wooden crates, that her opposition threw at her, must have caused one small wood splitter to find its way into her skin and get slightly buried in her right ankle. She was panting, as she winced at the sight of blood, dripping down her leg and the burning sensation in her lower ankle.

"Oh man, why now…?! I need to—"

"I see, you've injured yourself, hm? Good, all the better for me!"

"Get away from me, you—"

"Not going to happen today, lady. Come over here!"

Not even trying to go easy on her, the possessed sumo wrestler charges straight into the scientist, who was sitting on the ground, having been busy trying to get this wood splitter out of her blood soaked ankle, to no avail, since she got rudely interrupted by him. Now, she was at his mercy, being pinned to the ground by his weight, before receiving a few low blow sumo jabs from him, right against her ribcage, three in a row, before being grabbed by her weakened ankle and then getting thrown high up into the air, where she was completely without any defense, which Ganryu exploited for his own benefit.

As she was helplessly twirling in mid-air, she then gets nailed there, by a Ganryu's bodycheck, before getting hit by a low, mid and high jab and kick string, before being sent flying into a tailspin by a roundhouse jab from her opponent, before getting sent flying further, through a spinning jab, ending in a double launching jab, making her land straight against a small abundance of wooden crates.

Her injured ankle was literally on fire with how much it hurt, it almost made her scream out loud in unparalleled agony, right after she landed in more crates, causing a few of them to bury into her backside. And like before, the now twisted version of the sumo wrestler was not showing any signs of wanting to go easy on her, as he charges straight at her like an enraged bull, headbutting the wall so hard, it left a good dent in there.

But despite the injuries, Julia was faster and jumped out of the way, just at the right time to not get any worse injuries. However, this wasn't really that much of good news, because her body is starting to feel slightly limb, most likely due to how she was bleeding on her ankle and a bit on her backside, with few small wood splitters being stuck there, causing even more cuts to show. The coolness of the room did not help her situation one bit, in fact, it's all because of this, that caused her wounds to burn like nothing else. Her concentration already began to waver.

"This is not going well. This is not going well at all! We haven't even really started yet and already, my body is giving up on me… if only I had been more careful, damn it…!"

She had to come in terms with her situation, realizing that if she loses this, being fully aware of the way Ganryu is now, she expects something far worse than a date with him. Anything goes, because this thing that took now control over his body may as well just plan something, far beyond the realms of a forced rendezvous with her. Since he is clearly out for her life source too, he may as well do the same with her own family and the innocent children at the orphanage, once she fails to stop him. And that thought pains her more than any of the wounds she has at the moment, nothing comes close. She has to win this, or at best, maybe cause a draw to happen. She came to that conclusion, because of her body slowly giving up on her and the fact, that Ganryu has become too strong for her to handle.

"He is way too strong for me. I need to do something and fast! I hate to imagine, what might actually happen, if I lose this. This monster made it clear: He is out for more than just MY energy. If he already starts me, my relatives and friends may be next, I just know it… so whatever the case, I have to put an end to this match, even if it means that this match right result in a draw… I got to do it! Come on, Julia, grit your teeth and get through this fast!"

It was decided. And to make the determined message even clearer, she grabs the wood splitter, that was stuck in her right ankle and after lots groaning and severe wincing, she screams the loudest, once it finally got out of her leg, causing a few blood splatters in every direction, but at least, one pain less to deal with.

She may not be winning this anytime soon, but because of the stakes, the least she can do, is attempt to let this match end in a draw, so that none of the two end up winning or losing, thus, the energy aborbation may not even become a topic afterwards. Or so she thought, at least. She did not even need to wait for him to make a move, he was already charging straight at her like before. She was muttering to herself.

"OK, come here then. Whatever you plan on doing with my or Ganryu's energy, I won't let you have it. I'll be making sure of that. Bring it on!"

What followed was a struggle of the most exhausting kind. And it was borderline chaotic. First, Julia would be the one to punch the mindcontrolled sumo wrestler, right in the face, or the other way around and she may find herself getting sumo jabbed right in the face, herself. This went on and on and on. And sometimes, Julia might make usage of her surroundings too, like how her opponent was doing it for the majority of the fight, like throwing crates at him herself, or letting these huge shelves drop down right on top of him. He also returned the favor though, a number of times, so in the end, there was no clear field advantage. For how long it goes on, it only served to make the evil mist being grow irritated at best… and soon, we'd see both opponents, face each other, both busy heavily breathing and being at the verge of collapsing, since none of the two was willing to forfeit the match anytime soon.

"You're good, Julia Chang… For a mortal like you, you do seem to have strengths in postponing a match long enough for even me to end up in this condition… But I'll tell you something: I am growing sick of this fight…! And my master is slowly losing it, so why stall any further?!"

"But before we do that… you keep on talking about a "master" of yours… may you please be so kind and tell me, WHO your master really is…?! At least, have the decency to introduce yourself properly, before I end it all…!"

"Fair enough. His real name is Dusk. And it's just like he said himself… he is out to gain yours and many more life energy sources, all for himself, just so he can regain the old strength he used to have… before he was split in two different halves… and it's like I said, he wants more than just you. There are many more fighters out there, withholding a lot of this enlightening life energy… the more he engages in these fights, the more powerful he becomes. It's just that easy."

He had to grin sadistically, quite obviously showing signs of control on Dusk's behalf, especially once his now enraged voice now starts to speak through Ganryu.

"That's quite right! But because of my servant's incompetence, it seems I have no choice but to step in and finish this myself! Just sit back and relax, my lovely, young mortal! It will just pinch a little and before you know it, it's all over!"

Though Julia was pretty worn out, she notices that even Ganryu's form was trembling, realizing, that he might be trying to break free, but he can't, due to how Dusk was forcefully using him to speak to her and it already uses up more energy than he has to spare, so she took the opportunity to taunt him harshly, just trying to get him to attack her, because she is preparing something, that will be deciding this match. So she angrily yells at him:

"I am sorry to say this, Dusk, but I am not giving up yet… want my energy? Then come and get it, I am right here…! Unless, maybe, you're too scared of losing your spare body, because from what I am seeing here, you're not looking very fresh yourself… so go ahead! Why not make your final move…? It's winner take all, isn't it…?! So come on, I am waiting!"

Then the possessed Ganryu glares at her, muttering to himself:

"You worthless girl! Curse you ALLLLLLLL!"

"NOW!"

Both charge straight at each other, with Julia jumping forward, pressing both of her hands against Ganryu's chest. Suddenly, Dusk realizes, that something was locking him in place… and it's then when he realizes: Julia was planning on calling the spirits forth, to give her some assistance.

"You stupid—you can't be planning to—"

"Oh, hell yeah, I do! If I can't, then I can at least end this without either of us winning! So you better eat this up! Spirits, spirits, I beg of you! Help me! Do it now!"

"Nooooooooooooooo!"

Completely out of nowhere, both are locked in a sphere full of white ghost figures locking them down in mid-air, before the sphere goes off in a very strong explosion, with the shockwave causing the metal door of the storage room to break open and in the aftermath…

…we see Julia, trembling, as she looks up to see Ganryu, laying on the other half of the hall, semi-conscious, with her grinning slightly, as a small bit of her energy gets sucked out of here.

"Hey… I did it… though barely… now… it's your turn…"

Then, she collapses, now fully unconscious, having no more strength to continue.

…but then, we see Dusk entering Ganryu's body again, screaming in agony, as he then tumbles forward, to get to Julia's unconscious form, panting heavily, not being satisfied one bit with this result. He was supposed to win and then she comes by and just ends the match, in a draw.

"You runt…! How dare you, going for a cheap shot like this…?! Now I'll have to fight someone again and fast, before I start fading out of existence…! No matter, I'll recover from this, no problem… now, what about you?"

He notices, something was blinking inside Julia's pockets. He swiftly grabbed inside to realize: Her phone's GPS was hooked to another phone and it's blinking blue, meaning, she must have contacted someone to find her and track her down. On one hand, Dusk was scared, since that may mean, that he is going to get overwhelmed by more fighters and due to how weakened he has become, he cannot allow too many screw ups.

But on the other hand, that may be his opportunity. Whoever it was, that the signal was meant for, it must be her family. So he decides to go for something clever: Take Julia hostage and threaten them the same way he did with her. He starts to look down on her unconscious form, grinning widely.

"I think, I just know the solution to this petty problem. Hehehe…"

TO BE CONTINUED…


	5. Three Against One

**Chapter 5: Three Against One**

The haste was on. Julia's SOS signal has reached Xavier's phone. And the moment he received it, he immediately alarmed both Paul and Michelle about it. Even if neither of them knew, why Julia would send such a sketchy signal, the fact, that none of them was able to reach Michelle's daughter on their phones meant only one thing: Something must have happened to her. And they couldn't possibly brush this off as a mere coincidence. So the three settled on going to the local shopping mall, to which Xavier explained, that this was the place, that Julia was talking about of going there, before having taken her leave. Even the orphanage owner herself, Michelle, was willing to come along. She called up on a spare caretaker to watch the children during her temporary absence, so that she can focus on getting to her daughter, wherever she was.

So they made their way onto Paul's now refreshed motorcycle and rode to the mall, with Xavier being especially fired up to help. Since both he and Julia grew up together during childhood, he already had kind of a hunch, that this all smelled fishy. He knows her. She wouldn't just send out warning signs like this, completely out of the blue. And this was nothing new to him, considering how Julia has always been kind of a stubborn numbskull, who would just do whatever she wants, even if some people would tell her to stop. No surprise to him that she might have gotten herself into trouble again. More reason for him to assume, that she must have had her reasons for this. He mutters to himself:

"Damn it, Julia… and you call yourself a scientist with an intellect? Well, you know what they say: If your attitude is out of whack, your level of IQ means jack. You could have just told me to come along. But, what else is new, huh?"

He tapped Paul's shoulder, demanding him to pick up the pace a little, since patience was not one of his personal strengths.

"Hate to be a bummer here, but would you mind putting the pedal to the metal a little more, gramps?"

Paul had to laugh at that last remark. But that was bad news for the orphan, because he didn't know, who he was really dealing with. A former racing stuntman, and with this lack of knowledge, what is to come, will be a constant reminder for him, to never mess with the "Phoenix" himself. Which got confirmed even further, through Paul not taking any real offence to that insult of his and rather feels "empowered" to do so, as he was told. As if he was ready to teach him a lesson in respecting the oldies.

"Hahaha, "gramps"? No worries, kiddo. I can do that just fine. But all I'm saying to that is: Hang on tight, 'cause this will be a hell ride! No jokin' around."

For him, the color drained from his face, once he realized, he was actually serious about and from the look on his face, he was really planning to go over the edge. Comically, Xavier looks at the camera, looking quite unamused.

"…I should have kept my big mouth shut, right? Oh, hell no—"

And vroom! The biker sped forward with such a headbusting velocity, Xavier would have actually almost fallen off of the motorcycle for real, before tightly gripping onto Michelle, who caught him, just in time. But even though he was saved, he comically began yelling at Paul to slow the hell down, since he was going too fast. But Paul didn't listen. On purpose. He may be numb to insults, but he is always ready to shut up those, that don't show a tiny bit of respect. Especially about his motorcycle skills. So he felt like, that he just deserved that on all fronts.

"Da hell?! Slow the eff down, you asshat! We're gonna crash somewhere, otherwise!"

"Oh sorry, I didn't hear you! My baby is having a tough time today!"

"Cut me a break! You're mad!"

"Sorry, still didn't hear you!"

While the two were busy bickering around, Michelle was sunken in thought, as she was making up theories on what might have brought her daughter into leaving the orphanage, just so suddenly.

"Why would Julia just leave like that? Me and Xavier know her the best, she may be stubborn, but she means well and I should know it. After all, a mother's instinct is mostly able to tell, when something's up. And in this case, I have every reason to suspect, that Julia must be in grave danger… but this brings me to my next question… who exactly would want to harm her? And why? She may have previously worked for the G-Corporation, but nothing has happened so far, so I'm just going to assume, she behaved well and didn't cause any unnecessary ruckus at her workplace. And besides, ever since Kazuya Mishima has left the scene, the company is mostly out of commission and with no one around to hand out orders, it's not very likely to receive a "betrayal" penalty at this rate."

She then had to sigh, quite frustrated with herself, because she also had to keep something else in mind, while trying to pin down the culprit.

"And if this wasn't enough, what remains is: Why would Julia be targeted, at all? Has she maybe done something questionable without telling me? Was I the reason for it? Questions over questions and almost no way to answer them…"

She scratching the back of her head, gritting his teeth, as she was trying to figure out, who would do this to her baby. Her motherly love for Julia is the fuel, needed to keep her going. And after a few more moments of thinking… suddenly, like a thunder strike, a shuddering realization hit her, as she remembered something that Julia once told her about.

"Hold up…! Didn't she once tell me, that someone donated an unusually, huge sum of money to her charity account in support of her reforestation project…? And it went by the name of "Number1ChangFan"…?"

There was only one person in the whole wide world that would fit this description. Especially in that regard, how he donated way too much cash. And she should know it, since she once had something to do with this certain individual. Just remembering him, it sent ice cold shivers down her spine. But at the same time, she is not someone to instantly accuse someone of something. "Innocent, until proven guilty", that was her motto. And aside from this, despite the creeper demeanor of that very certain someone, at least he used to be not too much of a scumbag, unlike the rest of the bunch, for he was working for. He was being genuinely kind to her, even if she sensed, that something was not feeling right.

"Don't tell me… did he—no, it can't be, right? He would never be so dumb to actually go through with that. The consequences would be way too severe, otherwise and he knows it himself… at least, he SHOULD… I think it'd be best to take a deeper look into this, before coming to a swift conclusion."

Meanwhile, somewhere else…

An exhausted and annoyed looking Ganryu, who was still tightly under the control of Dusk's shadow, was carrying an unconscious Julia on his back, out of the backdoor, leading into the desert. He panted heavily, still feeling lots of pain from that severe hit he took from Julia's spirit attack.

"Grrrr…! That fool of a girl…! How dare she wound me like this…! I have to get out of here and fast! They are sure to find me here, thanks to that accursed GPS signal she sent! Curses! But alright, not too big of a problem, I can still recover from that… I just need to absorb some more soul power and it would be all in place again…"

He began smirking, as he realized something. He may not even need to fight. He can easily just go into the mall himself and absorb soul power, as much as his heart desires, without even putting up a fight. He then runs back inside and decides to cause major mayhem. He breaks through several doors, tumbling forward on his somewhat stubby legs, carrying the unconscious scientist on his behind, as if she was a backpack.

"Oh, this will be quite the sight to behold!"

And he was as true as his word, as he starts rushing right into the huge mass of people that overcrowded the hall of the shopping center. He started with a lonely man, who was just minding his own business reading a newspaper, before getting rudely interrupted by the Dusk-possessed Ganryu, who then starts grabbing the middle-aged gentleman by the face, raising him higher, starting to suck the soul energy out of him. Of course, that didn't happen without witnesses around him, however, that was the whole point of it. Everyone shall fear him and then be dumb enough to flee, because once he recovered his strength, he'd be always one step ahead of them. And once the poor man, who at first, was busy kicking the cursed sumo wrestler, just desperately finding any means of getting out of his grip, stopped struggling and fell unconscious, with Ganryu, without compassion, simply dropping the lifeless body to the ground, feeling his own power return. It may not be enough yet, but he still has a lot left on his plate. And this plate, was practically, the attendants of the mall.

"No, that will never keep my thirst quenched for long. I need some more…"

Once the witnesses realized, that the elderly man is, with a very likely chance, deceased, due to the high amount of soul energy being ripped from his body… they wanted to flee, but they were too terrified to move, they couldn't even bring themselves to run, even well after Ganryu's red glowing, hungry eyes pierced right through them. Frozen in place, there they stood, with the restaurant owner slowly approaching them, licking his lips, ready to feed on some more energy. This was basically like during a hunt. He is the hunter. And the prey is cornered. And if they were to make themselves noticeable, he might instantly kill them with his absorbing grip.

"You will leave this world, with a good deed fulfilled."

His next victim was an old woman, in a business uniform. He swiftly grabbed her by the face, before beginning to suck her soul, right out of her body, with no further questions asked. And while he was busy doing his work, someone from the crowd was smart enough to call the cops on him, but when he picked up the phone, the line seems to be faulty, as an unknown source of power seems to be interfering with the connection. So it took its time. And hopefully quick enough for him to make it out alive, because by the time, the cops finally picked up, the poor man was already dragged away by none other than the possessed, former sumo legend himself, just to end up being more energy fodder for Dusk.

Meanwhile, outside…

Paul and his small group of friends were finally nearing the vicinity of the mall, when from a certain distance they could see people, in panic, leaving the mall, without even looking back. That could mean only one thing: Ganryu must have already taken care of a good chunk of people, who functioned as "batteries" for him. Naturally, our heroes were not aware of this yet, but just watching all these civilians flee, scared for their lives, was enough for them to confirm this very fact. That needs to be put a stop to. But among the three, Xavier was most eager to butt in and ruin this delinquent's foul work.

"Seems like, we arrived at a VERY appropriate time indeed! Let's get in!"

He got rudely interrupted though by no other than Michelle, who caught him by the wrist, before he could go any further and she looked at him with scolding eyes.

"Are you crazy?! Whatever kicked off this commotion, for young men like you, it's a risk not worth taking! Don't start playing the hero now!"

But as expected, Xavier's determination remained intact and nothing that his mother figure would tell him, would ever truly get to him. Especially in a moment as heated as this, where someone's life is on the line, someone, actually near and dear to his heart.

"Let me go, Michelle! You won't be holding me back on this one, alright?! If Julia is in there, I got to get in!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Xavier! Tell me, who is going to save her, if you end up getting yourself killed in the process, huh?!"

"Oh, shut up, you old hag! Don't give me that crap! You'd be doing the exact same thing as me now, wouldn't you?!"

"How did you just call—"

It was this point that Paul had to stop the argument by force, because he wanted to point out something himself. Normally, he is not fond of cops or waiting for them to arrive, but this situation calls for a little more desperate measures.

"Hey, sorry to ruin the ride, but this is a moment of urgency, isn't it? What, you expect the cops to arrive on time, while they are still not able to tell their asses from their elbows? Chances are, this guy might have already cut all telephone lines or something. Not saying it's true. It IS a possibility though. So I say, before we end up scratching ourselves right in between our legs… we take it from here, right now!"

But before either of the arguing parties could say anything, the former stunt legend is already on his way to the mall, ready to burst right through the glass door. This made the two comically mad at him, before yelling in response:

"Paul!"

Once the Phoenix broke right through the glass door, no problem… but the sight he'd be presented with, would haunt him for the rest of his days. Lifeless, seemingly dead bodies, covering the entire mall. Not once, have his crusty eyes, ever seen so many corpses in one place. However, while trying to process the reality of what is laying before him, he also came to quickly notice something. And it was the fact, that none of the bodies seemed to have been physically tampered with. No gushing wounds or puddles of blood or body liquids to be seen, anywhere.

"What is this freaking shitshow?! What kind of madman would be nutty enough in the brain to even pull through with such a silent "massacre"? If you can even call it that…"

The dead silence began to unnerve the former racing legend. It was as silent as a graveyard would normally be. And soon after, Michelle and Xavier, having finally settled on following along with Paul's idea, they joined him. Having already been pretty curious from the get-go, due to their friend's unnatural silence, right after he busted the door open with his bare fist, they had more reason to follow along. And just like him, both froze dead in their tracks, once they saw the huge amount of dead bodies, being spread all across the different parts of the shopping mall. The silence only added to the eeriness of this now barren wasteland of a building. Shivers went down the spines of our lead heroes, as Xavier was the first to break the silence with a decisive question, while feeling quite freaked out:

"Now, allow me to ask… what the fuck is going on here?!"

"Trust me, kiddo. I'd like to know that myself. And oh, dropping the F bomb sure was appropriate this time. No matter. All that's left to do, is find the culprit and nail him or her down."

"And if we find that certain someone, we may also be able to find Julia."

But just when the three were about to split up and find the perpetrator, this part of work can surely be canned, once they heard a menacing voice, booming through the entire mall.

"Ah, more souls to feast on. Magnificent! I have been anticipating your arrival, foolish mortals."

All three heroes immediately went into the defensive, as a black shadow slowly descends down from above, and once they could see clearly, who it was, Michelle's skin began crawling like crazy, once she processed, who exactly was revealing himself in front of them. It was Ganryu.

"You have GOT to be kidding me…! You, of all people?!"

Xavier was puzzled at Michelle's reaction and immediately wanted answers from her to be able to understand, what he is actually dealing with.

"Michelle, who is that? Is it someone you know, personally?"

"Ugh, there are a decent number of reasons, why I never told you of this guy before… that's my personal number 1 fan, idolizer, worshipper, whatever you want to call him. Ganryu. That's one way to put it, though. A dirty stalker, might be a much more suitable description of him. He is that creeper, who tried to make advances on me, just to steal my family's pendant."

The young Mexican nodded.

"A stalker. A thief. A sleazebag. OK. And from the looks of it, even a murderer now, huh? Did I miss anything?"

Paul, feeling alarmed and immediately sensing that nothing felt right about this man before him, he had to ask:

"Hey, man! Would you be kind enough to tell us, where a girl named "Julia Chang" is?"

But hearing that question, made the possessed sumo wrestler laugh mockingly at Paul's dazed expression, proving even more, something's not right, whatsoever.

"My, my, are you talking about her? Since I was such a kind fellow, here she is…"

He turns around to show off the lifeless body of Michelle's adoptive daughter. Just the sight of this "corpse", the hearts of all three heroes began beating faster, instantly, feeling quite worried for Julia's safety. She looked like, she was in awful condition, outside of her limp form, dangling from Ganryu's back, with her glasses revealing quite the number of cracks. But among the other two, the young Xavier was most enraged about this reveal, truly believing that this man has killed one of his loved ones. His rage reached a magnitude, in which he was barely able to keep himself in check and his legs instantly made him charge straight at their brand new nemesis.

"Curse you! What have you done… WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO JULIAAAA?!"

Ganryu chuckles, before lovelessly dropping Julia to the side, where she is leaning right against the pole and instantly beaming at a sadistic, wide smirk at the young Mexican, who is all too ready to bash skulls with him. But the banished sumo wrestler failed to find any reason to regard this young person as a threat, so it all came down to easily toying with him. Wiggling his index finger at him, as if he was the school principal, he went:

"Oh, not a very good idea, isn't it? Haven't you learned that naughty boys like you belong in detention? From what I learned during my school days, at least, if you can't behave…"

Just when the Mexican's fist was about to connect with his jaw line, without a warning, the stalking lover then jumps right over Xavier, surprisingly light as a feather, despite his obvious disadvantage in the weight department, landing right behind him, before sending the young orphan flying with a well-timed and extremely precise sumo slap into the back.

"…then do it by force!"

The crash ended quite harshly for the poor guy, as he broke right through one of the cement pillars of the mall, breaking it in half. Having been witness of that sudden ambush, all that Michelle and Paul could do, was gawk with their jaws dropping down, quite far.

"Since when did he get so strong?! Did you see that just now?!"

"Now I have seen it all! And you mean to tell me, this guy used to stalk you?! Now our problems have just piled up even higher!"

But it wasn't known to many, that despite his young years, Xavier was a pretty tough cookie. Even after having broken through one of the constructive pillars of the mall, that wasn't enough to get him down. Having idolized King for so long, since the days of young, he also adapted part of his fighting spirit, which he had watched countless times during matches on TV. And like a real fan, he also aspired to be just like him, even taking notes from his fighting style, which is pro wrestling.

Despite this knowledge, Michelle's motherly instincts kick in and she wanted to rush in and come to Xavier's rescue, however, an enraged voice held her back and it was no other, than Xavier himself.

"Xavier, are you OK?!"

"Don't Michelle! I don't need your help! I can still get up just fine, no worries!"

The former stunt performer whistled through his teeth, finding it astounding at how tough the young orphan really was.

"Damn, kid. A major blow like that probably didn't send you packing yet, huh?"

"Shut up! It still hurt, y'know!"

All that brought to the middle aged restaurant owner, a heartily, while also, malicious laughter out of his aging cavity.

"Regard this as a warning, you three. I may have taken up the form of your beloved "accomplice", but be it known. I am nothing like him. As a matter of fact, he is just a tool, serving its purpose for my goals. And so are you three. My blood is boiling. There is a lot of valuable soul energy emanating from all three of you. Especially you…"

He slowly began pointing at Paul, who could stare back at his opponent, being all too ready to, in his manner of speech, "kick his ass into the orbit".

"I really don't know, what are you getting at, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less. I was never fond of playing the superhero in a situation as this, to begin with. But if my instincts prove me correct, it's only for the best, that I don't let you get away from here, with at least a few, deep bruises on your face. Since you kidnapped Michelle's daughter and you seemingly used this creeper's body to lure her here, I assume, I am just going to say this: That wasn't very nice. And thus…"

He stomps the ground, and began glaring at the possessed Ganryu, as he got into his fighting stance. If there was one thing, that Paul was never able to stand watching, then it was men like him, treating women, as if they were just mere objects of lust to drool over. Having met Michelle and a few other, talented female fighters during the first two tournaments, that he ever participated in, in his young days, his previous opinion on women shifted towards the thought: Even they can be as good as him. Michelle was living proof of that, if she was able to withstand three Deathfists of his, without immediately losing consciousness, while being knocked into the next week with it.

"…let me clarify, that I have the least amount of patience with folks like you."

"Interesting perspective you are offering here. So how about it? Shall we settle this bothersome matter with a fight for the ages? I already know who you are… and now let ME clarify something, Paul Phoenix… and you too, Michelle Chang, because I don't like repeating myself…"

Dusk makes his host now do the sumo movements, before sumo stomping the ground so hard, it left quite a decent amount of cracks on the shiny, lean "carpet", made of marble. Because of Ganryu's own strength having gotten enhanced through this malevolent shadow that is now in possession of his body, the cracks even expanded to one of the pillars, causing it to slightly bend to the side, due to the ground beneath it, slightly opening up. That didn't make the former stunt racer change his mind though, as he bravely faced off against his now official archnemesis.

"…I may have taken up the form of a former "acquaintance" of yours, but rest assured, this will be nothing like all the fights you may have had before with him, because I pull the strings now. And once I do, it may or may not become nothing short of a slaughter."

However, having made the very firm decision to save her daughter, Michelle bravely steps forth, joining Paul with her own Kung Fu stance, going as far as her being willing to declare war on those, whoever dare to lay a finger on her family. Like Julia, her adoptive mother had that certain determination about her that not many could possibly match.

"I have absolutely no idea, how it came to all this, or who you really are, but listen closely: We're going to brawl this out and if you refuse to spill the beans, we'll be doing this the hard way."

The former celebrity gave her a thumbs up and both stomp forward, while pointing at Ganryu and speaking in somewhat comical unison, declaring that the two would be fighting him, all at once, since they did not trust the circumstances they were in.

"Did you come prepared to lose?!"

"Heh, what nonsense. I could indeed be wrong about you being of any use to me, but let's take a good, long look."

"Xavier, guard Julia, we'll be taking care of this."

"Oh, no problem! Never asked to get pummeled today anyhow! Good luck getting squashed!"

It began, only slowly at first, since Ganryu was far from being a speedy type of fighter. He charges straight forward, with every step causing an earthquake to shake up the entire building and leaving large cracks on the spots, where his feet took the steps forward, necessary to get to his opposing side. That was quite simple for the fighting pair to evade, as they simply jumped in opposite directions, preparing to strike from two different directions.

It began with Michelle catching her former admirer by the wrist, before twisting him around in circle, in classic wrestling fashion, before letting him to go to tumble right into Paul, who tackled against him with his entire weight put into that one shoulder bash of his. The clash caused Ganryu to tumble back to his youth crush, who then went all out and grabbed him by the waist to perform an old-fashioned, but still quite effective, German Suplex on him. Paul was quite pleased to see that flawless combo.

"You haven't lost your touch yet, I see. Work it, girl!"

"Don't congratulate me yet!"

Since Ganryu received a major hit from the two, all at once, he was rendered defenseless, even well after having gotten back up on his walkers, because Paul and Michelle were not planning to give him any chances or mercy.

Their next combination consisted of Paul sliding forward, uppercutting the sumo wrestler into the air, followed by Michelle, who, light as a feather, jumps onto his backside, using it as a trampoline, just to catch her adversary in mid-air, before dropping down with him, as if she was doing an aerial Tombstone Piledriver, with Paul even adding in more, by stomping right on top of his enemy's head.

But even that wasn't enough, as they figured, that this could be over in just a few more minutes, since Dusk-Ganryu is quite obviously starting to show signs of him being injured and tired. So they went on the offensive again, this time starting with the orphanage owner, who gets sumo grabbed by her idolizer around the waist… but before his hands could even come in contact with her backside, she harshly grabs him by the neck, before delivering a quite powerful slap to the face, which makes him see stars. Giving the Phoenix a moment of opportunity to hammer punch him straight down, hard enough for him to bounce off of the marbled carpet, right into the air, before getting sent flying across the mall with a fully charged Deathfist, causing quite the explosive impact, once he landed against a marble pillar of the hall.

Both musclehead fighters were cheering, and nobody could possibly blame them, since they were easily, in their words, "whooping this creeper's bum". However, the only firm skeptic in this very moment, remained Xavier, who found it all quite odd indeed, as he gently held an unconscious Julia in his arms, having just finished treating her, for his standards, cureable, physical wounds.

"What is going on? Is he taking this any seriously or what? Moments ago, he was busy, going on and on about being granted a whole new power and that he is "no longer like before", but I am not seeing it. Was he just spouting some random bullshit in fear of not immediately getting exposed for what he really is, or…?"

He then saw his partners approaching the now "sleeping" sumo wrestler, before quickly yelling at them, having noticed, sadly too late, that this was just a trap.

"Paul! Michelle! Get back, this is—"

"Too little too late, brat!"

Just when words are to be dropped, with no warning, Dusk-Ganryu opened his eyes and revealed an angry, red-eyed gaze, as he then charges straight forward, like an enraged bull, with lighting speed, causing the entire mall to waver under his weight. It's getting more and more apparent, that he wasn't lying about his previous statements. And even more, once they saw the trace of destruction he left behind, caused by his mindless charge. The marble was all ruined, the glass has shattered along with the violent shockwaves he caused, with every step he made. But even with the pair having retreated at the last second to avoid getting grabbed, that proved to be a futile effort, because that turned out to not be Dusk's strategy.

Indeed, having left a trace of demolition behind him, with the marble grounds all cracked up and the pillars slowly starting to loosen up and all the glass shattered there is, it was clear, he was planning on doing something truly preposterous. He stops right before the two, before charging up to do a major sumo stomp, that might actually do really big damage on this place, if he was to go through with it, considering the damage he has already done. The dark entity began laughing through Ganryu, as his left foot is starting to spark all over the place.

"You imbeciles! I barely felt all of what you were throwing at me, moments ago! And because I am now in the moment, let me show you, what I can really do!"

Michelle was quick to declare his plan, putting all the pieces together.

"He is trying to sumo stomp the ground hard enough for us to fall through!"

"Can he actually do that?! If so, we have to stop him! He's gone mad now!"

"Xavier! Take Julia with you and get out of there! This place might become a tomb for us all, if the floor gives up on us! Take her to safety!"

"At your command, ma'am! I got nothing better to do anyhow!"

Taking the cue, the young Mexican lifted Julia up, right over his shoulder, before running, as fast as his legs could carry both him and his childhood friend, out of the danger zone. And once he was out of sight, Paul and Michelle rushed right in, beating Ganryu up as much as they could to make him lose his focus and thus, stop the stomp from going through. But that proved tougher than they thought, as the sumo wrestler seemed to have gained an extra level of protection against all of their attacks and no matter what they threw at him, he'd just absorb it and pretend, as if nothing had just touched him. He could only gain humor from their fruitless attempt as stopping him from causing an earthquake, with his stomp.

"Is this your best? You are literally making me yawn!"

"Is this guy serious?! Not a single scratch!"

"Don't stop! That's exactly what he wants us to do!"

"It's useless! Stop resisting and accept your fate!"

In the end, they couldn't do it, as his foot now connected with the ground and just as they had feared, the ground began cracking up so much, it all bursts into tiny pieces, with them also losing their footing and falling down into the dark hole, along with the sumo wrestler. However, the stomp caused a lot more damage than they had anticipated, because, they could hear all pillars falling into themselves, the higher floors losing their own footing and only further spread destruction, all across the board, with seats, plants and stairs getting buried under the rubble…

From outside, Xavier felt the intense burst of energy and all he could see was a massive smoke cloud escaping from the main entrance and the funnels on the roof. He began growling, as he was growing really worried about Michelle and Paul…

"Goddamnit, Michelle! Please be OK! And you too, Paul! If his stomp alone can cause an entire building to collapse, I fear, it will only get worse from here… I need to help them! But what can I do? This creep is far above my league with this ludicrous strength by his side…! Will I even be a challenge?!"

Meanwhile…

Surprisingly, right below the mall, was the parking garage, so in the end, neither of their falls proved fatal, but it didn't go without bruises. And both of our heroes were buried under rubble, while Ganryu, for some wondrous reason, remained unscathed from the fall, as if he was prepared for that in advance.

However, it all happened so fast… Michelle was lucky enough to be buried the least, under all that garbage, but the time she needed to recover was truly concerning and through her hazy vision, she could faintly make out Ganryu, holding the seemingly limp form of Paul. But the very moment, her vision returned, she instantly got PTSD flashbacks from when Ogre killed her old flame, the first King. Her eyes flared up and all that came out of her mouth, was a menacing battle cry, as she rushes forward to ram right into her personal tormentor, not wanting these bad memories to return to her and distract her from the action. Since he was way too focused on absorbing Paul's soul, he could not focus on what happened around him, so the former biker legend was in luck and it resulted in Michelle catching Paul in mid-air, to make him come back to his senses.

"Paul! Paul! I got you! Everything's OK!"

"Ugh, there you are… done with your nap?"

But to break the tense mood, she finally came back to her senses entirely and to relieve herself from the shock, she comically began slapping Paul's face, over and over again with lightning speed, while going:

"Come on! Come on! Come on! Why do you have knack for scaring ol' me like that, get it together!"

Her slapping got abruptly stopped by a heavily annoyed Paul, who grabs both of her slapping wrists to stop her vent of frustration.

"Ouch! Stop it, that hurts! I am all awake now, cool off!"

"…Oh. I am so sorry… amazing, what panic can do to your brain and overall judgement, eh…?"

"Yeah, but I really doubt, willingly hurting someone out of lack of patience is the same as that, like how you did it…"

But their moment of comic relief was stopped by Dusk (in the form of Ganryu), slowly getting back up, growling, making it crystal clear, that he is not pleased with the two still being alive, let alone being interrupted by his "crush". Without any further ado, the pair followed along with it and got into battle position, just like him, who had to comment on it:

"Obnoxious luck has to be on your side, right now. But do not even believe for a moment, that I am letting you both off the hook, that easily. Now, I shall kill you both, nice and slow, if I have to."

Paul however, was not fazed by this threat one bit. Instead, he grinned at him, as if he had a plan ready in store for him and Michelle quickly caught on to it. She grinned at him, knowingly in return, as the two get into position.

"You should be careful with what you wish for, because like the good ol' saying: A phoenix always rises from the ashes, when it's on."

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. I'm Burning Up!

**Chapter 6: I'm Burning Up!**

Now that the playing field has evened up, thanks to Paul's and Michelle's unbreakable fighting spirits, the now, by Dusk possessed Ganryu, was all sorts of unpleased. The collateral damage he had caused through a simple sumo stomp was still not enough to mark the end of their struggle, so there was still no end to be seen. The two former rivals now continue onward with their combined strength to take down the astray restaurant chain owner.

Meanwhile, Xavier was resting in a cooler alley way, along with the unconscious body of his best friend extraordinaire, Julia Chang, whom he had just taken away from Ganryu's reach, to protect her from further harm. But in the long run, it wasn't a very smart thing to do, to go too far away from the mall. If the cops were to catch glimpse of him holding the "corpse" of his childhood friend over his shoulder, they'd put all the blame on him and immediately arrest him on the spot, regardless of the situation. He may have never truly seen a prison cell, but he already has quite the bad track record with the law.

"Crap, what did I get myself into…?! Why did I think, it was a good idea to just run far away from them… and now look where I am…!"

We get a zoom out and we see police cars roaming the area, close to the mall. They are probably already on it on finding the culprit behind the explosion and they are already taking safety measures, in case the latter would get any hopes of escaping through the city. Not a bad plan, but for Xavier, it was all sorts of wrong timing. Since the police has apprehended him, a decent number of times for violent outbursts in public, he had already gained a status of "most violent kid on the block". And now, with Julia, basically playing the role of "living corpse", who is seemingly barely holding onto the remaining life she has left, it does not put the young Mexican in a positive light, if he was caught running away.

However, his mind has been set. He needs to go back and help his beloved Michelle. Remembering her words of how she has been an old flame of Ganryu's, there is no telling of what this creep might be planning on doing to her. Paul may be with her, but Xavier was never a fan of these big muscleheads, who believe themselves to be unrivaled. So he had no choice. He has to go back and help them as best as he can. He won't stand for it, if he has to live with regret.

"But it doesn't matter! I have to go back and help the two, especially Michelle! I can't even begin to think of the awful things that this creep might be planning on doing to her, should she not make it… you creepy shithead. You won't be seeing me running away again, no, no, no… I will bash your skull in if I have to!"

He grabs onto Julia ever tighter, to prepare for a wild goose chase through the streets to avoid detection from the cops. He had to chuckle. It was not often, where he'd find himself in pivotal moments like these and given how Julia was actually with him this time, a troubled grimace, which is supposed to be him smiling, formed on his face…

"Come Julia! Don't give up on me…"

…then, a laugh escaped his lips, since he knows, what his childhood friend would do, if things looked dire.

"Y'know, I could use some of your belief in the spirits right now… hehe, as if that'd save me though… OK! It's do or die time!"

Meanwhile, back at the mall, in the underground parking lot…

Even with Paul and Michelle having been able to hold off against the possessed Ganryu quite well, the battle was far from over, as they had only made their opponent more eager to suck the life energy out of them. However, as it all stood, the fight seemed to be going in heroes' favor, as their teamwork ability really began to shine throughout the fight.

And even with Michelle's former strength not having fully returned yet and her already being quite exhausted, because of her poor health, she still kept doing, since she is not someone to just let this all sit down.

As a demonstration of their really decent team dynamic, Paul first knocks Ganryu clean away with his Deathfist, to which Michelle responds, by catching the sumo wrestler in midair, before powerbombing him to the ground, followed by her doing a full, if not only half-hearted (due to her lacking mobility), Moonsault Body Press, reaching quite a respectable height for her current health condition, before dropping down with her full weight on her idolizer's spine and due to her being heavier than before she let herself go, that hurt more than it should.

And just after Ganryu was about to stand up, he only found himself entangled in yet another brutal combo of theirs and it first involves Michelle grabbing his ankles, lifting him up to let him tumble behind her, to just let him connect right with Paul's hammer like punch, which only makes him bounce off of the ground, followed by him running after him, before bombarding him repeatedly with a barrage of heavy hitting punches, just to keep him afloat and after the fifth hit, he roundhouse punches the middle aged man so hard, he flies right into a parked car…

…with an unintentionally comical effect to it, how the alarm goes off, the moment Ganryu completely wrecks the upper front of the car, denting the top and busting the glass. That made Paul turn around and smile and chuckle nervously.

"I hope the owner has actually good car insurance. I'd really hate to cover the costs for the lad, given how we basically fight for our lives here. Hehe. Hehe…"

But the orphanage owner had to lightly slap the back of Paul's neck, before returning back to being serious about this.

"Whatever! Pay attention, we aren't done yet!"

"Oh, come now, we can draw some breath for a little. For as tough as this nut is to crack, he is as slow as molasses. He just can't keep up with our speed."

"Even so, this is not the time to let up."

She uses this opportunity to explain a few of her suspicions to him, as she feels like, that her daughter might have done something to their opponent, that would explain, why he is not making too much of an impression on them.

"Isn't it strange? He said before, that he needed to absorb life energy to reach his former strength again… don't you think, by this point, he should be much stronger than he previously claimed to be? And yet look at him. We are practically swiping the floor with him, like it's no big of a deal. He is not even trying, or rather… he WANTS to, but something may be holding him back?"

Paul had to bring it up too, since during their fight, he was also starting to think that something must be up with Ganryu. He had his own suspicions and he was more than willing to share them as food for thought.

"…Now that you mention it, you're not the only one with this line of thought. I noticed the same thing, but if I were to guess, could it be possible, that Ganryu is on it on resisting Dusk's urges? I mean, trying his damndest to break free of his mind control?"

"That is a possibility for sure. However, I am just going to be morbidly frank for a little and claim, that he may not have the mental fortitude to pull something like that off. I understand where you're coming from, but I highly doubt that someone as weak-willed as him would be capable of resisting something as nebulous as what Dusk is meant to be. From where I come from, it is practically a natural, genetic gift to my tribe that we are to "cure" troubled spirits or rather, loosen up the grip, of that malicious miasma around them."

This declaration got the former stunt champion quite hooked. Now seems to be right moment for a little bit more info on who he is actually working with.

"Tell me about it. You mean to tell me, that you are capable of healing this poor fellow? I mean, with all due respect, I realize that he may not be the most clean room of the house, but even a sleazebag like him doesn't deserve to end up like this."

Michelle sighed, because deep down in her heart, she knew Paul was right. They may not know each other for that long, but even he was able to tell, that she is certainly not a fan of holding grudges, especially the kind, that are long overdue like her beef with Ganryu. He may not be entirely innocent in this case, given how he still lured Julia somewhere deserted for whatever business he may have had in mind with her, but there are certain things, you don't even wish upon your worst enemies. Becoming a puppet without will or soul, being the ones to commit crimes on someone else's behalf without the ability to resist.

"True… and yes, I shouldn't be too angry, now that the circumstances have changed. Ganryu may have been a creeper, but I am not one to be completely without mercy. He may have even been dragged into this, without even knowing, what'd await him, ending up like a mindless puppet of whoever summoned this cesspool of evil… and that is why, I am here. To drive Dusk clean out of him."

"And how exactly will you do that?"

"You will soon find out. But let me warn you, once I use this technique, I might tap out and you'll be fighting him on your own from that point onward."

"Oh yea- Wait a sec, what does that mean?!"

But just when she was about to give an explanation, Ganryu came back to his senses and he began to growl in misery and rage, breaking the front of the car with both open palms, clearly signalizing, that this is far from over. But despite all this, he still seemed to powerlessly tumble forward, as if he was a drunk, who just got off the ground, trying to collect his thoughts.

"You fools…! You haven't beaten me yet! You still haven't tasted the full wrath of my rage!"

"OK, Michelle! Whatever it is you're planning on doing, I am all for it! Because admittedly, he is seriously starting to get on my nerves for how tenacious he is, in spite of his injuries!"

"But you have to promise me one thing…"

She then glanced at Paul with a serious glare, saying very clearly:

"…just like with Julia, you better make sure, that nothing happens to my body, after I have done the deed."

"Say what?! What is it with those subtle hints, Michelle?! You better make yourself clear, before—"

But it was a little too late for smalltalk, since Michelle was now being ambushed by an angered Ganryu, who is now basically going in a state of road rage, hitting her with all the fastest and strongest frontal palm strikes he knows. But to their shock, it wasn't as easy this time to parry his strikes, since he was so blinded by rage, she had to jump out of the way to avoid getting crushed under more rubble and car pieces, that flew in the air, as his hits would also connect with pillars or garbage pieces.

As Michelle is busy defending herself against this still unknown force of nature, she had to collect her thoughts, as she began to feel her own body slowly giving up on her, being close to the brink of giving in to exhaustion. Which gave her more reason to prepare the technique. She thought to herself, after having retreat back for a moment to calm down and take a breather, with her gritting her teeth, allowing the overwhelming pain to finally register:

"Damn it, I can't hold out much longer like this… it was a mistake of mine to be wasting too much energy on trying to beat him as fast as I could, so much for that… who am I kidding? As long as this thing has him in its grasp, there won't seem to be any end in sight… if only I had much more time to prepare myself, but no matter…! I have to do this… I just hope it will be enough… my body is aching like hell, it's a shock to me, how I can still stand straight after all this…"

She had to then think about her daughter and how she might have caused Ganryu to be the way he is now. And that is another factor, which brought her into attempting to weaken Dusk's control that way. She began smiling to herself, feeling very proud of her beloved daughter.

"And I think, it's all thanks to my baby girl that we are able to not worry ourselves too much with him… she must have called upon the spirits of our ancestors to bind down Dusk, just enough to limit his mobility and potential in regaining more strength in all areas. The effects may take a while to sink in, but it's perfectly effective against such tanks for fighters, in spite of the time it takes to show its tolls on the one it has been used on."

She then began to relax, as she interlocks both of her hands together to give out her prayers, for the spirits to hear her pleading. It took quite a lot of concentration to do, because of her being quite rusty and her not being in the best physical condition.

However, there is quite the drawback to all this: Once it's done, the user, who has called the spirits to his or her bidding, will fall unconscious and stay that way, for an entire day or week, depending on how fit they were, when they used the technique. Julia has a good chance of getting back on her own accord, barely 2 days later, since she is still young and generally lot fitter than her adoptive mother… but the latter, who is quite exhausted, both mentally and physically, given her health and her higher age than her beloved off spring, it may indeed take longer to recover from that than ever, at worst, even more than a week.

And just then, the time limit she got became ever tighter, as Ganryu suddenly shows up behind the pillar she was hiding against, basically smashing it in half, like if it was wood. She wanted to give her fighting partner a little more information on her technique, but given how time was running out for her and she became weaker by the second, she had to act fast and execute the move, before she collapses. She then jumps backwards, barely evading the incoming roundhouse kick from the sumo wrestler, breathing heavily, all the while, even starting to feel dizzy from the stress she now has to endure from trying to gather the spirits and trying her best to not get killed by her opponent. It proved only semi-effective, as she still ended up getting struck by brutal palm strikes, with the very last one sending her flying straight into the next wall, leaving a small dent in the wall behind, with her coughing up blood… but she remained unshaken and fully determined to go through with this.

"I sincerely hope Paul will eventually figure me out. I believe in him. I wish I could explain it all to him, but time is a luxury we don't have anymore… Dusk may be weak for now, but I can sense his power growing again and his grip on Ganryu becoming ever tighter. I have to step in and loosen up the shackles on him, before he becomes too strong for even Paul to handle… I cannot allow that to happen…! I have to do it now, or he will never have a fair chance of winning this…! If I can't stop him, then who will…?! Let's do this…!"

Paul was genuinely worried, since his partner didn't make it clear on what exactly she was planning on doing, just to even out the playing field. He could sense it, though. Ganryu seems to have partially come to and Dusk's grip has only become stronger and more focused on a single goal: To demolish them all.

But he then saw with both shock and glee, how Michelle was slowly starting to glow all white, as spirits suddenly began entering her body and coating her into a protective sphere… which causes the possessed wrestler to step back in fear, realizing that he is about to be hit by the exact same technique like with Julia.

"This…! This can't be happening! Again?! You're not telling me that this woman is capable of summoning the spirits for help, too?!"

The retired stunt artist had to grin.

"I haven't the faintest idea, what exactly you're planning on doing, Michelle, but if it will save our bacon, then I'll support you, all the way. And if my gut feeling is correct… I have to make sure, that this hits its mark!"

He ran straight towards the Japanese business owner, holding him tightly from behind, by holding him from below his armpits, keeping him in place for Michelle to not miss.

"What?! Get your grimey hands off me, you filthy cur!"

"Sorry buddy, but you won't be getting a second shot today! Denied!"

With no way to break free, due to how resilient Paul's grip was, the possessed sumo wrestler now found himself in the mercy of Michelle, who has now reached the apex of her power, practically beaming with energy, given to her by the warriors who came before her time. She yells in ectasy:

"Spirits! Just like you aided my little angel, I now besiege thee! Hear my call! I offer my heart, my soul, my body, to release thee! Come together and let the heavens pierce through the darkness!"

The epic speech had to be comically interrupted by Paul looking quite bemused, shaking his hand close to his face, muttering to himself:

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. You have to be overdramatic, otherwise, it'd not be quoteable or whatever. Just go already."

"Way to steal my show… anyways, where were we?!"

"No…! Let go of me! How dare you touching me with the same fingers that wiped your dirty ass! LET GO!"

But then, his screaming was silenced, as he felt his torso getting touched by a white glowing Michelle, who smashes practically headfirst into the sumo wrestler, before their entire surroundings began shaking like crazy and he felt this overwhelming sensation again of being overcome, just like with Julia…

"Nooooooooooooooooo!"

"Whatever this bright light is, even for me, it burns my eyes, darn iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

And then, it gets cut to them all flying away from one another, caused by the shockwaves of Michelle's "Spiritual Drain Touch".

Paul quickly regains consciousness, before immediately realizing, that Michelle is laying, barely alive, on the other end of the hall. Feeling the worst, of what she may have done to herself in order to pull this technique off, her words rang in his head.

"I have to make sure, that nothing happens to her physical body, after she has done the deed?! Well, my ass! From what I gathered, it might as well be called a suicide bombing! Michelle! Michelle!"

He quickly rushes to her side and lightly scoops her up by the upper and lower back, lifting her head up to, shaking her slightly, not wanting to be too rough on her, given how badly injured she already is.

"Michelle! Michelle, what have you done?! I know you were trying to help, but don't tell me, that—"

"Paul… it's just as I said… please… don't let anything happen to me, while I am done and out… I believe in you, I know you can win this…"

"What is about to happen now…?! What was that technique?! Did you—"

"No…! Don't worry… I'll be fine… that's why I keep saying… my body is not to be destroyed, while I am out of the game…"

"What am I to expect next…?"

"You'll find out soon enough, as you two fight… my power is fading… good luck, Paul… to rest… is up… to you…"

"Michelle…? Michelle! Don't give me up on me now! Michelle!"

And with that, she felt limp right in Paul's arms… he gently puts her back down, still trying to process of what had just occurred. She may have said so, that she will be fine, but from Paul's perspective, not being the brightest too, this was basically misunderstood as a declaration of R.I.P. for the orphanage owner. He felt the warm tears in his eyes forming, as his knuckles started tightening…

"That… that was way too quickly, damn it…! For christ's sake, Michelle…! Are you stupid or something…! I understood the ingenuity, but why did it have to come at the cost of your own life…?! That's not right…!"

And to make things even worse, he had turn around to see and hear the still possessed Ganryu laughing as maliciously as possible at his misery and grief.

"You got to be kidding me…! This was all for nothing?! Did she just throw away her life ever so casually like this, and it was all for the shitter?! This can't be real!"

"Pitiful! Very pitiful indeed! And I was at the verge of giving up on myself, how dumb of me! That was just like grabbing into the toilet bowl, expecting the worst and as it turns out, there was nothing and all you have to do is disinfect your own hand. It appears to me as if she just gave up on herself instead. She knew there was no way out of it, so she just pressed the reset button on her own. Disappointing, she might have been the wife material without a doubt, just like her daughter, hahahaha!"

"Bastard…!"

Being at full strength now, Dusk-Ganryu basically took it easy now and teasingly bears in his own ears to get the dirt out, pretending as if he hasn't heard Paul's crystal clear threat.

"Huh? Come again? I could have sworn, you might have called me a "bastard" and what not. Don't take it personally, my fellow. This is how the world of business works. It's all about feeding yourself, until your hunger is quenched and the rest of the competition has already faded into obscurity, while you are standing tall on top of the food chain. You may not know this, but I am a bit of a business owner of my own. Things weren't going smoothly, but I was just doing the world a favor, by introducing my sumo meals. Sumo wrestling is not to be taken lightly, if you want to rise to the top, the saying "feeding yourself to the top" takes on two different meanings then. A few extra pounds will be necessary, both literally and not literally. God, I am such a genius!"

He then put on a knowing grin, since Dusk has mostly seen the darkness in all of man, speaking through Ganryu, as if he knows of Paul's history, trying to sound as manipulative as possible.

"You know where I am coming from, don't you? Paul Phoenix? Or is that right arm of yours, not proof enough of your "blazing" failure? Trust me, I know all too well, how it is to be poor, to be insignificant, to be regarded as the worst of the trash of society… you want fame, you want the money, you want to invest in your own life quality, so you can settle down and live life to the fullest, with no drawbacks pulling you down. Oh, but the tragedy, all this is long gone, isn't it? You truly believed to have been on top of the world and the second reality struck you and gave you a good taste of it… you ended up more than just penniless. And surely, this isn't the first that had happened, am I right?"

He was referring to the argument he had with Law that had caused their friendship to have disintegrated into ash, which hasn't changed for the better since.

"Don't you see? You are just as much of a glutton as I. You and I aren't too different from one another, now are we? You want fame. I want fame. We strive to find greatness in ourselves. How we achieve it, is of no concern to us, as long as we get all the good things that life is offering to us on the market… being surrounded by beautiful women, being the center of attention, being the real "Number one", living the high life… what more can be asked for? Aren't you desiring of any of your old glory returning?"

Like a snake, he tenderly puts a hand on Paul's shoulder, almost in a whisper like tone, was he speaking his manipulative memos into his brain, trying to lure him out and make him succumb to his will next, another powerful servant in his ranks.

"Remember the roar of the crowd, all of them yelling your name in glee, imagine… a monument of yourself, made out of pure gold, no, platinum, somewhere in America, where anyone can see it, as they remember you well… wouldn't that be great?"

Dusk was indeed on point with what he was implying. Paul indeed was deeply missing the glory days. He indeed desires greatness, more than any other. He worked so hard in order to get so far, he trained himself beyond his own possible limitations, just to then being confident enough to call himself "the strongest in the universe". Even if that title was a major stretch, it still didn't go without a small hint of truth behind it. He messed with the Mishimas and even beat some of them by a close call. And life being as unfair as it can be, just robs him of everything he ever stood for… should he really accept that? Living in the shadows of obscurity? Was all that training for nothing in the end and should he just give up?

"What about it? If you join me, then I can assure you, by the end, the name "Paul Phoenix" will be written down in the annals of human history! You will be rising to the tops, everyone will fear you and give you the respect you always deserved and once someone dares mistreating you, hell itself shall befall them and YOU will be the judge! How about it?"

…

…the silence was then broken through by Paul muttering to himself. And for a moment, it would seem as if Dusk's words have reached him…

"Fame everlasting… the roar of the crowd… the world screaming my name… being financially set for life…"

"Yes, yes, yes… it will all be yours… I can make all your wishes come true, all you have to do is join me! It's that simple! I know, your intelligence quotient leaves much to be desired, but even that can be fixed!"

…

…another moment of silence kicked in, and this time, Paul appeared to have succumbed with his eyes being obscured, as he turns to the possessed Ganryu, quivering…

"By all means, what will it be—"

…but then, without warning, he gets delivered a hardcore levels of powerful Deathfist, straight into Ganryu's jaw, full force, making him lose three or four teeth or so from the amount of power he put into that one punch, showing off his truly angered expression as he glares upon the sumo wrestler in revulsion. The downed latter is now looking dazed and shocked at his opponent, covering his mouth in agony, trying to process the unparalleled pain he is suffering right now, due to the loss of his teeth.

"My apologies, but I am not interested in joining forces with the likes of you. What was that again? "Business is all about outfeeding the competition"…? My own light bulb may be lacking in terms of brain power necessary to figure out the most complicated stuff ever, I am not even good at math… hell, sometimes, I ask for a receipt, two times, just to be sure, I don't get exploited, whatever that even is supposed to mean. But…"

Paul then starts pointing at himself, by gently pressing the side of his knuckle against the spot, where his heart was, maintaining the threatening glare he is busy mustering up.

"…having lived in the gutter for so long, even an idiot like me is able to sort out the trash, from the good, once he sees it. That was all I could do, just to be able to see tomorrow. And you, my friend, have just reached the absolute bottom of the barrel for me. I have no clue, who is truly talking to me, but given how it's you, "Dusk", then let me make something abundantly clear: I am nothing like you. You're right. I desire fame. I still do. I want to relive the glory days, when everything was still in its place, without me constantly screwing it up… I even dearly miss an old friend of mine…"

He felt himself being at the verge of tears again, remembering how he and Law fell apart, all due to his greed and self-centered ways of making a quick buck. Always going for shortcuts to get what he wants… which eventually led to the two going separate ways.

"…but your worst mistake yet, was actually robbing me of the same person, that had actually taken care of both me and Forest, when we were out, at the verge of death, in spite of my status! I can't let this slide, now can I?! She didn't just help me, Michelle saved my life! And you made her leave this world way too quickly! You seem go to by the rules of always trampling on the weak first, and then become stronger to feed yourself even more… and if you really live by that mentality and you still have the nerve to call yourself a martial artist…"

He then stomps the ground, yelling at the underworldly creature, with absolute certainty and conviction.

"…THEN YOU'RE WORSE THAN SCUM! I'LL KILL YOU, DUSK! YOU HEAR ME?! I HOPE YOU HAVE ALREADY CALLED UP A GOOD FUNERAL SERVICE… BECAUSE I AM GOING TO SEND YOUR ASS STRAIGHT TO HELL!"

Having made this clear declaration, with the adrenaline rushing, numbing all of his wounds, the "Phoenix" was practically burning inside of him again. And he then prepared for something even better. He then grabbed the small capsule on his right shoulder, muttering to himself:

"On that fateful day, death should have taken me with him, burning down in the blazing inferno of my accident, many years ago… but since he let me live and left this mark on my right arm…"

We get a small zoom on a burned scar, on his right triceps, in the shape of a scythe. It was, in Paul's words, "the grim reaper's mark".

"…I think it's about time, to just pile on the pressure and bring the HEAT, baby!"

The capsule gets opened and his entire right arm gets soaked in gasoline all over. Even Ganryu couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"What is it that you're planning? What good will come from drenching a part of your body in flammable liquid? Did the beating so far shaken up your brain or something?"

"You're about to find out. I wouldn't be so loudmouthed, if I were in your shoes. Because now, my Deathfist is about to go through a little bit of an evolution. You know what they say? A good BBQ, needs a strong flame… and I am about to deliver on that promise."

He takes out a lighter and presses the flame right against his right arm, feeling the burning sensation come out of it.

"Are you hungry for a punch that shall turn you extra crispy and rare?!"

And we then see his entire arm, burning like nothing else, as if he had just dipped his entire arm in lava and the lava just got stuck on his arm, not even cooling down along the way. The sight was too ridiculous for his opposition, he couldn't even pretend.

"Is this your secret move? Don't make me laugh! All you have done is just putting yourself on fire, that's that! Have you totally given up on yourself and so to compensate for your scrambled brain, you try to make me run in fear from your stupidity… you dumbass redneck?!"

"…"

As a small demonstration of his newly acquired power, Paul goes on ahead to run straight into a next near car, generating as much wind as possible to let the flame gain some oxygen to become even stronger, before smashing straight into the motor… and we see small shot of the flame from his right arm going down a small pipe, leading all the way to the gas tank of the car, causing it to explode, but marvelously enough, even with the recoil, Paul remained unharmed.

But all that Dusk had to say to that, was the following: A sarcastic clap.

"Color me impressed. You just destroyed a car without even using explosives. That is truly life changing... you really are a fool, if you believe, that is enough to intimidate me and get second thoughts of challenging you to a fight."

Paul though remains chill and holds up his blazing right hand, staring at his adversary with such intent, being all too ready to prove him wrong.

"Oh, really? Want to put that theory of yours to the test?"

He then jumps forward, with Dusk not even trying to block or jump to the side, he was seriously desiring to be hit, just to then have the chance to get back at the American for making such a fool of himself.

But once his blazing right knuckle comes in contact with Dusk-Ganryu's solar plexus, he then felt his eyes rolling back into the back of his head, as he, with Ganryu's voice, shrieked in unimagineable agony, as we also hear loud sizzling noises, as if you'd put a raw piece of meat against a really hot surface, like a frying pan… followed by him flying back, with a gaping hole in his black suit, with burned skin peeking out of it.

"It's like I told you… a good BBQ, needs a strong flame…"

Dusk was give to recover from that though, as he quickly regained his solid posture, panting very frantically, as he tries to process the burning wound on his tummy, growling back at him.

"I underestimated you for the last time. I'll make you pay for this! Let us enter the final round, shall we?!"

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
